Autonomous Cars

Extract

[...] For these reasons, autonomous vehicles could be revolutionary. Unfortunately, there are barriers to their development. They are mainly technical, political, legislative and psychological. For example, the engineers have not yet found the right balance between range and resolution for radars and lidar sensors. The weather conditions are also a problem. Will these vehicles be influenced by snow, mist or rain? And how they will behave on a bridge or in a tunnel. But technological problems are not the most important. [...]

[...] Autonomous cars are very promising for the future. The benefits that we could derive from these cars are many and are part of four main areas: security, ecology, economics and comfort. About safety, an autonomous vehicle is safer than a car controlled by a human driver because there are no human factors like stress or fatigue. A study finds that ninety percent of road accidents are caused by human error. The use of autonomous cars will reduce accidents and the roads will be safer. [...]

[...] So, they may have difficulties to cross borders with an autonomous vehicle. About psychology, the main challenge is to gain the trust of users. Entrusting security to an automated car can be difficult for some people. The other problem is that human drivers have non-verbal communication. Will autonomous cars be able to analyse these gestures and attitudes? In conclusion, autonomous vehicles could be a main technological advance with a lot of benefits, but there are some barriers to this technology. Thank you for your attention. [...]

[...] Then, the operation, autonomous cars are very complex. First, the car is equipped with IoT devices to collect data from the car's environment. These devices are different sensors located in many parts of the vehicle. For example, there are ultrasonic sensors in the wheels to identify curbs and vehicles when you want to park. There are also lidar sensors to measure distances with objects, detect lane markings and identify road edges. These sensors bounce light beams on nearby objects to collect data. [...]