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navigation technology avoids the
cost of physical guides such as rail or
cables.
The pods already operate on public
roads, but research continues to
extend their use on all kinds roads
and in different conditions for full
autonomous operation. The €4m
i-CAVE (integrated Cooperative
Automated
Vehicles)
research
program, led by the Technical
University of Eindhoven, has been
looking at how to link the 2getthere
pods together to create a ‘virtual train’
with pods 0.3s apart using wireless
links for a Cooperative Adaptive
Cruise Control (CACC) system.
One of the biggest shakeups for
driverless technology this year was
the entry of Uber. It acquired the
entire research group from Carnegie
Mellon University and started to roll
out driverless taxis in Pittsburgh. The
vehicles, the Fusion from Ford and
XC90 from Volvo, use the Carnegie
Mellon software and while they still
have a ‘driver’ who can take control
in the event of an emergency, they
operate autonomously. The Pittsburgh
roll out follows Uber’s other entry into
the autonomous vehicle market with
Otto. The 91-person start-up develops
systems and software for self-driving
trucks, with staff from the self-driving
development teams at Google, Apple,
and Tesla.
The team is competing with Daimler-
Benz, who have also demonstrated
a self-driving truck. The future truck
uses radar sensors linked to the
throttle and braking systems to allow
the trucks to follow each other as
closely as a few metres, reducing
drag from the air and boosting fuel
efficiency. The front radar sensor
has a range of 250 m and scans an
18-degree segment while a short-
range sensor has a range of 70 m
and scans a 130-degree segment.
A stereo camera installed above the
instrument panel has a range of 100
m, and it scans an area of 45 degrees
horizontally and 27 degrees vertically.
This monitors both single and two-
lane roads, pedestrians, moving
and stationary objects, information
on traffic signs and even the road
surface. The camera recognises
everything that contrasts with the
background, and so it can measure
clearances of the top and sides of the
truck precisely.
The US is not the only place where
autonomous taxis are on the streets.
NuTonomy in Singapore is rolling out
driverless taxis using LiDAR, CMOS
camera and radar sensors.
One of the things that had been
holding back the testing and roll out
of driverless cars has been the lack of
legislation to support the technology.
Up until now, a car or truck has
required a driver. The Federal
Automated Vehicles Policy from the
Department of Transport in the US
now allows for vehicles that can take
full control of the driving task in at least
some circumstances. Portions of the
policy for highly automated vehicles
(HAVs also apply to lower levels of
automation, including some of the
driver-assistance systems already
being deployed by automakers today.
The guidance for manufacturers,
developers and other organizations
outlinesa15point “SafetyAssessment”
for the safe design, development,
testing and deployment of automated
vehicles. The Guidance covers any
organization testing, operating, and/
or deploying automated vehicles,
which includes traditional car makers
and component suppliers as well as
technology companies, start-ups or
fleet operators who are customers of
Autonomous Stuff.
The 15-point Safety Assessment
outlines objectives on how to achieve
a robust design. It allows for varied
methodologies from Object and Event
Detection and Response to Roadway
Safety as well as Response and
robustness of the HAV upon system
failure. It also covers the validation
methods for testing, validation, and
verification of an HAV system, data
recording and sharing requirements,
post-crash behaviour and vehicle
cybersecurity.
All the driverless cars at the
announcement of these regulations
in September used one particular
technology
supplier,
called
Autonomous Stuff. It’s ‘Automated
Research Development Platform’ was
used for the University of Michigan’s
Mcity car and it supplied technology
for the driverless cars from Carnegie
Mellon University, MIT, Stanford,
University of California Berkeley,
University of Michigan and Virginia
Tech Transportation Institute. It
supplies sensors and middleware
software such as Polysync, and this
is being used by Kia for a self-driving
Soul model.
Conclusion
2017 promises to be even more
significant as the sensor and software
technology matures. Apple has
been developing technology for self-
driving cars, and whether it will move
into hardware or focus on software
remains to be seen. Self-driving taxis
and trucks will be rolling out across the
world, with real world uses. That of
course has led to problems. Google’s
self-driving car has already had
several crashes, and Tesla’s Autopilot,
while not a fully autonomous control
system, has also had problems with
sensors leading to accidents.
However, a wide range of different
autonomous platforms are mature
enough in 2016 to be used
commercially on public roads, is a
huge shift. More will roll out in 2017,
especially for mass transit, ready for
autonomous cars and trucks to be
available on the road in the 2020s.
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