Autonomous Vehicles

A self-driving car, also known as a autonomous car, driverless car, robo-taxi, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. Self-driving cars are responsible for all driving activities, such as perceiving the environment, monitoring important systems, and controlling the vehicle, which includes navigating from origin to destination.

While autonomous cars still have a way to go since Leonardo da Vinci’s self-propelled cart circa 1500, the thought of going completely hands-free still feels slightly science -fiction. These vehicles use a combination of GPS for calculating longitude, latitude, speed, and course to navigate, LiDAR technologies, which use laser light pulses that map surroundings, and machine learning to see and understand. But to what degree depends on the level of autonomy.

There are six levels of driving automation, originally put forward by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), which the U.S. Department of Transportation has agreed and adopted.

1. Level 0: No Driving Automation.
   Just as it sounds, there’s no automation here: the human is in full control of all driving tasks with zero assistance.
2. Level 1: Driver Assistance.
   This is the lowest level of assistance. The human is in full control but gets a little guidance from a single advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), for things like acceleration, cruise control or braking, but only for one task at a time.
3. Level 2: Partial Driving Automation.
   With partial automation, the driver is still in full control, with full attention to the road, but the ‘help’ is a little more refined. The ADAS has combined automated functions, which for the human means the system could potentially control both steering and braking/accelerating simultaneously.
4. Level 3: Conditional Driving Automation.
   Imagine a fully automated assembly line that requires full human supervision in case of a needed override, that’s essentially how level three works. In this case, the vehicle can operate on its own in certain circumstances. Functions like steering, braking, and acceleration are automated, but the driver has to be ready to step in.
5. Level 4: High Driving Automation.
   At this level, it’s “minds off,” as the car can perform all driving tasks, and can intervene if something goes awry. That said, Level 4 only works for location-restricted trips driving from point A to point B and back, think autonomous Uber Eats deliveries.
6. Level 5: Full automation.
   Full automation: the aspirational goal for vehicles of the future. With fully automated self-driving cars, you could basically read a book or play on your phone, as the vehicle can perform all driving tasks under all circumstances.

Although the six levels aim to systemise conventional levels of automated vehicles, and focus on required driver engagement, the levels of autonomy don’t take into account both the task and driver attention required, as well as the complexity of the environment in which the vehicle is capable of operating if these levels are to be used as standardised progress markers.

Experiments have been conducted on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) since at least the 1920s. The first ADAS system was cruise control, which was invented in 1948 by Ralph Teetor.
Trials began in the 1950s. The first semi-autonomous car was developed in 1977, by Japan’s Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. It required specially marked streets that were interpreted by two cameras on the vehicle and an analogue computer. The vehicle reached speeds of 30 km/h (19 mph) with the support of an elevated rail.

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a pivotal role in the development and operation of autonomous vehicles (AVs), enabling them to perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and navigate safely without human intervention. AI algorithms empower AVs to interpret sensory data from various onboard sensors, such as cameras, LiDAR, radar, and GPS, to understand their environment and improve its technological ability and overall safety over time.

Autonomy versus automation

Autonomy implies that an automation system is under the control of the vehicle rather than a driver. Automation is function-specific, handling issues such as speed control, but leaves broader decision-making to the driver.

Euro NCAP defined autonomous as “the system acts independently of the driver to avoid or mitigate the accident”.

In Europe, the words automated and autonomous can be used together. For instance, Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 supplied:
“Automated vehicle” means a vehicle that can move without continuous driver supervision, but that driver intervention is still expected or required in the operational design domains (ODD), “fully automated vehicle” means a vehicle that can move entirely without driver supervision.