Car makers see evolution towards autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to transform drivers’ experience and in recent years we have seen a big jump in technological advancements.

For car manufacturers, the journey towards fully autonomous cars is one of evolution as they build on driver assistance features which are becoming more widespread and have allowed drivers to become used to technology helping them on the road.

Beginning in the 1990s with cruise control, there has been constant development of technology to reduce a driver’s duties behind the wheel.

We are now at Level 2 assisted driving where the driver is in control, but the car, through the use of sensor equipment, is aware of its surroundings and can make adjustments if necessary. Cutting-edge systems available on the market today offer adaptive cruise control with steering assistance, which adds the capability of maintaining the vehicle’s position within a lane.

The most advanced of these offer the ability for the car to change lanes. However, the current limitations of these systems mean that the driver must be fully focused on driving and aware of their surroundings.

Some vehicles now offer shared control between driver and vehicle, but this is a significant challenge, as when drivers develop trust in the system, there is a risk of them becoming over reliant causing their attention to the road to lapse.

This becomes particularly important when drivers are able to remove their hands from the steering wheel, for example using Tesla’s Autopilot technology. One way to prevent this is to introduce a driver monitoring system.  Cadillac’s Super Cruise feature allows the driver to remove their hands from the steering wheel, however driver monitoring ensures that the driver keeps their eyes on the road alerting them if they are thought to be distracted and re-engaging them in driving. Although this technology is currently on the market, there are still legislative challenges. The USA is paving the way, as currently it is the only market in which it is legal for the driver to remove their hands from the steering wheel.

The next stage will be Level 3, where the driver can be hands off and not required to monitor the roads in specific scenarios, for example on a motorway or when parking However, there is a caveat, in that the driver can be called to take control at a moment’s notice, should the driving situation become too challenging for the car to handle on its own. This level of autonomy is fast approaching. 

The key challenge for Level 3 is ensuring that the driver can regain road and vehicle awareness within a prescribed time, in order to take over driving.

This challenge continues into Level 4 when the vehicle is fully autonomous but is only allowed to drive in this mode within a defined area. Once the vehicle is required to leave this area, the driver has to be re-engaged, and regain situational awareness prior to taking control.

This issue disappears in Level 5 when the vehicle is fully autonomous and able to complete a journey end-to-end. However the bigger challenge here is that there is no human fallback in the form of a driver to take control of the vehicle, should the driving scenario become too challenging for the vehicle to handle.

Alongside enabling the progressive maturation of technology, these incremental steps of enhanced capability allow drivers to become familiar with, and to gain confidence in a car’s driving ability. As technology advances, these systems will require drivers to monitor less, which they should become more comfortable to do as they have built trust in the technology.

Advanced driver assistance systems with high capabilities are filtering down into more mainstream vehicles, giving more people the chance to experience the technology and become familiar with its advantages.  As a result, people should start to feel more comfortable with the idea of autonomous vehicles. They will be able to build trust through experience, whilst still being able to take control of the vehicle should they desire.

Technology companies are approaching the development of autonomous systems from the opposite end of the spectrum, beginning with Level 4 systems. The business model for this relies upon shared mobility sol

The road to widespread use of fully autonomous vehicles certainly is a long one. The evolutionary approach from car manufacturers bringing the technology into privately owned vehicles and the revolutionary approach from technology companies will provide consumers with different options with varying levels of autonomy. These can be chosen depending on a person’s comfort level with the technology.

Beyond this, the target is for vehicles which are fully autonomous, and able to travel anywhere with no human intervention required. It is difficult to say when this transition will happen, as it is a large step change due to the level of technology maturity and infrastructure required for this ‘go anywhere’ ability.