Taking Baby Steps from Cruise to full Control

The most recent crash of a Tesla S autonomous vehicle (AV) or driverless car as most of us would call it, has thrown the spotlight back onto the safety aspect and more specifically how the driverless car interacts with human drivers.

 

Up until this accident which sadly cost the life of the occupant in the driverless car, I had not really much more interest in an AV than that of a bus stop user watching a passing car.

We have all seen the news reports from Google and Apple about their latest App which just happens to involve the family car taking on a whole new role.

Nothing exciting there, any fan of old cars knows that they seem to have a personality of their own which we humans are happy to work along with; unless it is a bad day in the car shed and your project takes on all the charm of a runaway Mopar product called Christine.

My low level of interest does not stem from resistance to technology.  I really do like gadgets in fact according to our local computer shop I am an early adopter of technology; even if these days it is a little older like a vintage commodore 64.

 

When you check into it, the whole AV scene is well established and has some big name players who have product in testing.

Alphabet Inc the owners of Google began testing driverless cars in 2009, In Europe Mercedes-Benz, are conducting live trials with an Actros tractor truck/prime mover and General Motors got the attention of Wall Street with the recent purchase of silicon valley based Cruise Automation Company.        Ford Motor Co. have had discussions with Google regarding AV technology and Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has said that autonomous vehicles are coming.

Competition amounts to improvement, and with all the big auto manufacturers looking for that marketing gem which will sell cars; the general public can expect more news on the Autonomous Vehicle saga.   Since the price of oil is down with no apparent rise in sight, the notion of offering a Hybrid or full Electric vehicle has a little less appeal to generate sales.

 

As the testing of this technology continues and improvements are made, there appear to my untrained eye to be some interesting developments emerging.   Much like the VHS or Beta choice back in the dark days of television viewing, there seem to be two schools of thought. 

One that follows the boot full of computers fed by a sensor array, radar device, and multiple GPS positioning units. This model apparently is very good in a controlled environment and is great at responding to road rules etc however not so good at reacting to last minute or erratic actions by other road users.

The other approach is promoted by George Hotz owner of Comma.ai,  George is famous for hacking some big name electronic products when he was in high school.   He has developed a system where the car "learns" to drive and interact in much the same way as a human does when we attend driving school. 

It is interesting because he explains things in a very down to earth and logical manner. He also follows the big developers like Tesla in stating that this is Autopilot/driver assist technology, not a fully driverless car product.  A detail which Tesla stressed when reporting on the recent fatal crash, the current technology requires the driver to keep a hand on the wheel and remain vigilant. 

 

When you think about it, we have upgraded cruise control to adaptive speed control (which still requires you to steer, if you read the warning in your car owner manual) team this up with park assist for those damn reverse parks and complete the package with the pop out GPS screen we really are in technology heaven.