Autonomous driving

1. Technology
Technology
prediction of the rise of self-driving cars is
built on several key assumptions, including
a sharp drop in technology costs and a
highly favorable regulatory climate.
According to the report, consumer
demand will push the market toward selfdriving cars, since an increasing number
of drivers care less about the driving
experience and more about getting from
Point A to Point B quickly. As a result,
they’re more likely to give up the driving
experience and transition to self-driving
vehicles that can transport them more
easily while potentially saving time and
money.
These vehicles will not be autonomous in
the sense of being unconnected— rather,
they will be able to drive themselves
precisely because they are connected to
the outside world via sensors and V2X (a
combination of vehicle and infrastructure
connectivity) communications. However,
in order for the connectivity technology to
be effective, a significant number of people
will need to use it because V2V (vehicle-tovehicle) sensors work best when there’s a
critical mass of other vehicles to connect
with. V2V via DSRC (dedicated short
range communications) at 5.9GHz is now
standardised and a number of automotive
OEMs have proved inter-operability, to the
extent that it soon might be adopted as a
global standard.
Traditional automakers could continue
to manufacture the self-driving vehicles,
but the report says they will need to
adapt quickly and incorporate the new
technologies into the vehicles. Because
the cars will be automatically driven, the
safety risks will be dramatically reduced,
and as a result manufacturers will be able
to produce new models on a much quicker
basis - in part because they will be spared
from the burden of today’s regulatory
tests, and would be able to shift their focus
to better integration of the current and
emerging technologies.
Future Impact : Driverless
Vehicles
From decreased vehicle costs and lower
infrastructure expenditures to fewer crash
victims and elimination of car insurance
completely, the implications of driverless
vehicles will be huge finds the report. Some
of the implications of a totally driverless car
that doesn’t crash would be:
Technology Spotlight :
Self-Driving Vehicles
(Ratna Chatterjee is an R&D Management and innovation professional with over 29 years of Entrepreneurial and
Corporate experience in working with the automotive industry. Currently she is the Chief Consultant at ARDMC
(Automotive R&D Management Consultants), with offices in New Delhi, US and UK. )
The day when autonomous or “self-driving
vehicles” are an intrinsic part of our
everyday lives, may not be far off, says a
new report prepared by consulting firm
KPMG and the Center for Automotive
Research (CAR), based on interviews with
leading technologists, automotive industry
leaders, academicians, and regulators - as
well as research of current industry trends.
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“Although the new technology could
provide solutions to some of our most
pressing social problems, the implications
would also be profoundly disruptive for
almost every stakeholder in the automotive
ecosystem” finds the report: ‘Self-Driving
Car: The Next Revolution’, released in early
August 2012. The industry appears to be
heading towards a revolutionary change
that will dramatically reshape not just the
competitive landscape but also the way we
interact with vehicles and the future design
of our roads and cities.
The report doesn’t pinpoint a date
for when self-driving cars will become
commonplace because technology is
evolving so quickly, but is optimistic that
the vehicles will be implemented soon. The
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Motown India / September 2012 71

2. Technology
• Automakers cut weight from cars and
trucks as crash-less cars do not need to
be made with as much reinforced steel or
as many passenger safety devices. That
would also lower vehicle costs, speed up
vehicle development time and boost fuel
efficiency.
• Automated cars would drive in tighter
packs because computers would control
their speed and spacing. That would mean
smaller roads, reduced parking spaces and
the elimination of traffic lights, shoulders
and guardrails, leading to a significant
reduction in the billions spent annually on
energy, roads and other infrastructure.
• Driverless cars would end the need for
car insurance and auto repair shops
• A shared fleet of driverless vehicles
will transport people to and from their
destinations as and when they need to
travel
• Lighter, easier-to-build cars could
open the auto industry to new rivals
using a model where a company designs
and markets a product but outsources its
construction.
Technology
world and they’re still not on the roads.
General Motors showed off “dream cars”
in the late 1950s like the Firebird II and
Cadillac Cyclone with features automakers
are now starting to roll out in new models
as the technology, based on sensors, lasers,
radar systems, GPS, cameras and microchips
has improved and become affordable.
But many auto executives say
the industry is on the cusp of
welcoming vehicles that make the
idea of keeping both hands on the
wheel an anachronism.
Web giant Google has been
working on a driverless car for a
while – fitting a fleet of vehicles
in the United States with video
cameras, radar sensors, lasers, GPS
and an onboard database. Google’s
fleet of driverless cars has covered
300,000 miles as of August 2012 –
the equivalent of 12 times around
the globe. Although the cars
operate automatically, they require
operators to travel in the car and
take control when needed, which
they do by pressing the brakes or
turning the wheel.
Volvo has developed a “driverless
car system” in a joint venture
project, named SARTRE (Safe Road
Trains for the Environment) - funded
by the European Commission. The project
aims to reduce congestion, environmental
damage, and traffic accidents. A recent
SARTRE trial saw a convoy of un-manned
and wirelessly linked Volvo’s drive 125 miles
along a Spanish motorway, following a lead
car driven by a professional racing driver.
Such a system isn’t entirely driverless
and relies on the capabilities of the
driver in the lead vehicle of the so-called
“road train” to lead the rest of the “slave
vehicles”. It’s a sign how the technology for
autonomous vehicles is advancing rapidly
and how what’s called a “self-driving car”
can take different forms.
However, the pace of invention has
quickened, with automakers as GM,
Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen developing
technologies to help drivers avoid
accidents. GM predicts semi-autonomous
cars to be available by the middle of the
decade, and fully autonomous vehicles
by 2018. The ultimate goal is to take the
steering wheel totally out of consumers’
hands and eliminate accidents altogether.
DRIVERLESS CAR EXPERIMENTS
It’s been more than half a century since
some of the first concept cars boasting
self-driving features were presented to the
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In a world where Nevada and Florida have
already passed laws allowing the licensing
of self-driving cars, the rush is on to make
the job easier for drivers.
J.D. Power and Associates found 37
percent of U.S. consumers it surveyed
in March 2012 were interested in
autonomous driving technology, but
only 20 percent definitely or probably
would buy it at an estimated price of
$3,000. Consulting firm Accenture said last
year that almost half of U.S. and British
consumers it polled would be comfortable
in a self-driving car.
Advanced and Emerging Technologies:
Autonomous driving
The closest competitors to Google
are probably Ford and Volkswagen.
“Traffic Jam Assist”(TJA) and “Temporary
Auto Pilot” (TAP), designed by Ford and
Volkswagen, respectively, allow a car
to drive itself on a highway. The two
technologies rely on adaptive cruise
control and sensors. TAP uses an active
and laser-guided cruise control system
to maintain a minimum distance to the
car in front and uses cameras to detect
lane markings and keep the car within
a certain lane. Others, led by Volvo with
“City Safety” (CS) and “Pedestrian Safety”
(PS), have created technologies that stop
cars in potential accident situations on
urban roads. Volvo doesn’t need a limitedaccess road, but CS is stop-only; it’s not
continuous self-driving.
Ford’s 2013 Fusion mid-sized car
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3. Technology
includes a lane-keeping aid system, an
active park assist function, adaptive cruise
control and collision warning.
BMW’s i3 electric city car will include a
traffic jam assistant that auto-navigates
through traffic jams at slow speeds, and
both BMW and Volkswagen say they’re
moving toward incremental rollouts
of semi-autonomous driver-assistance
packages, with some features available
now. BMW has also been working on an
automated vehicle, which last year drove
itself from Munich to Ingolstadt.
The 2013 Toyota Lexus LS460, will be
equipped with an “advanced pre-collision
system” available as an option. When
driving at speeds below 29 miles per hour,
the system uses radar and optical sensors
to determine if a car is likely to collide
with a pedestrian or object ahead. The
Toyota system can override a distracted,
inattentive or impaired driver and bring
the car to a stop prior to impact. Toyota
is already working on an Intelligent
Multimode Transit System, which can
switch from automatic to manual driving.
Toyota is also developing the AVOS – a car
which can drive and park itself as well as
return to its owner. Honda is working on
creating a more relaxed living room style
automobile interior to better complement
driverless cruising.
General Motors, Ford Motor, Volkswagen
and indeed most automakers and
automotive suppliers are working on
digital-mechanical systems that are integral
to driverless or so-called autonomous
driving. In two years VW’s Audi luxury
division has hinted it will offer a system on
its next-generation A8 flagship that allows
a driver in low-speed stop-and-go freeway
traffic to put the vehicle on “automatic
pilot.”
Sensor fusion currently is a building block
in the development of semi-autonomous
and fully autonomous vehicles - but it
is envisioned that more sophisticated
technology will be available by the end of
the decade. Sensor fusion development
also is bolstered by GM’s work on the EN-V,
the semi-autonomous electric concept
vehicles. By combining GPS with vehicleto-vehicle communications, distancesensing and object detection technologies,
EN-V can be driven both manually and
autonomously, the latter allowing it to
automatically select the fastest route based
on real-time traffic information.
Researchers on the Gold Coast, Australia,
say they will be road testing a vehicle
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Technology
luxury sedans, the XTS and the ATS, have
a Driver Assist package that already
incorporates a number of sensors to
detect nearby objects. The sensors will
automatically brake when a driver is
backing up to avoid a collision and it
will alert a driver of a potential forward
collision. Now Cadillac is testing lane
centering technology, which uses cameras
to detect lane markings on a highway.
This allows the car to steer by itself by
maintaining its driving lane position. By
combining lane centering with objectdetection and automatic braking, Cadillac
cars can operate autonomously for long
periods on the highway, even in stop
and go traffic, according to GM. Cadillac’s
approach of hands-free highway driving,
which is an outgrowth of cruise control,
could be a foothold for broad use of selfdriving car technology starting with luxury
vehicles.
which uses a phone’s satellite navigation
technology and camera to drive along the
street within a year. They believe that one
day we will not own individual cars but
will use communal vehicles to be used
when required, and by slotting our phones
in the dashboard the car will have all the
information needs for the journey.
Korean car manufacturer Kia has figured
out that if you fit a car with navigation and
GPS, you might be able to get even more
out of it than simply finding your way on
the road. The brand’s latest Uvo system,
built in conjunction with Microsoft and
unveiled recently, can liaise with your
smartphone to direct you back to your car
if you forget where you parked it, or it can
call the emergency services and ping them
your location in one hit at the push of a
button.
Google Driverless Car
The Google driverless car project stemmed
from a Stanford University project that was
the first to successfully navigate the 2005
DARPA Challenge, a contest to develop a
capable self-driving vehicle. Headed up
by Google engineer and Stanford AI Lab
director Sebastian Thrun, the project is
meant to improve driver safety and reduce
the possibility of accidents. Google’s
modular system uses GPS, video cameras,
radar as well as online navigation features
to watch for traffic, detect pedestrians and
get passengers to their destinations. Inner-
city navigation still requires refinement, but
development is continuing.
Google’s project to develop software
and sensors to allow vehicles to drive
themselves launched its “autonomous
car program” in 2010. The vehicles have
radar and video cameras that locate the
car’s position on the map and watch for
stop lights and obstacles. Google still
needs to do ‘millions of miles’ of testing
before it is ready to offer a self driving car
system for sale, but they expect a system
could be ready much sooner than the next
decade. While the main challenges relate
to software, there are hardware issues,
such as the cost and reliability of sensors
to detect hazards around the car. Google is
in regular discussions with auto companies
and the competitive nature of producing an
autonomous vehicle is what’s driving the
new technology.
Other forms of driverless transportation
systems have been successfully implemented
like the SkyTrain in Vancouver that runs on
42.7 miles of track. There is even a shuttle
“bus” in Rotterdam in the Netherlands called
the ParkShuttle that operates something like a
vertical elevator.
London’s Heathrow Airport launched the
ULTra Personal Pod cars in 2009. The fourpassenger personal rapid transport (PRT)
vehicles take airport-goers on a special narrow
road from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to various
parking lots. Passengers use a touch screen to
type in their destination, press a start button,
and the battery-powered vehicle zips along at
25 mph to their destination. MI
GM Driverless Car
General Motors sees the disruptive nature
of the technology and want to take the
lead. GM believes semi-autonomous cars
will be available by mid-decade with more
sophisticated self-driving systems by
the end of the decade. Cadillac is testing
a feature dubbed “Super Cruise” that is
capable of fully automatic steering, braking
and lane centering in certain highway
driving that could be ready for production
by mid-decade.
GM said that two of its 2013 Cadillac
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