The Tech Behind Driverless Cars: 3 Things You Didn’t Know
Self-driving automobiles are on the fast track to becoming commonplace for the regular consumer. Ever since the induction of Google’s map-creating smart cars, the concept of a fully autonomous vehicle has gone from fantasy to realistic concept. Improvements in AI, data transfer and sensory technology have allowed current self-driving vehicles to perform at the level of a human. In fact, with critical response times and machine learning, the driving might even surpass that of humans.
How is this possible, you might ask? Well, it comes down to a series of interactions related to sensors, adaptive intelligence, software and more. If you’re really curious, here are a few things you might not have known about the technology driving the driverless.
1 – Better Safety
The core of driverless cars is safety. Even though not all automobiles employ “smart driving” like a true self-driving car, they have similar features. Most of these start with automatic adjustments to terrain, obstacles, and impending hazards. Cars with smart technology react quicker than humans, but can also adjust safety settings on the fly. Smart cars can individual tire brakes to make a quick stop, along with sensing hazards, turns, or other problems quickly. Since they react faster than the brain, this means driverless cars, oddly enough, are often safer than human driven ones.
2 – Advanced Detection
Peripheral awareness would be the one thing humans have over autonomous machines, and that’s been the case for a while. However, advancements have bundled together various advanced detection mechanisms which allow smart cars to “see” their surroundings and make adjustments as such. Radar, sonar, and LIDAR (Laser Illumination Detection and Ranging) all compromise the make of how a smart car views objects around it.
Mounted sensors around the wheels assure the car has a 360 understanding of where it is relative to other moving vehicles, while radar and sonar create data paths for the vehicle to move towards. This gives the vehicle unparalleled observational abilities compared to the limited senses of a human driver.
3 – Better Driving
In total, 2 accidents were reported regarding Google’s smart cars, and both were related to human error. It’s likely that smart cars will be the efficient drivers. With the numerous tried and tested safety features combined with computerized reaction times, smart cars will make our roads safer. They also save people money as well, since there’s less concern for insurance claims.
We’re still a ways off from having self-driven cars as commonplace as regular ones, but over the next several decades, it’s safe to say humans may no longer be the ones at the wheel.