It’s estimated that there are nearly 1.5 billion cars in the world. What all of these have in common is the fact that humans drive them. But in recent years, self-driving cars have been featured in the news much more. Various companies have been developing them, and there are debates about their legality and safety.
What Is a Self-Driving Car?
A self-driving car is also known as a driverless or autonomous car. It’s a vehicle capable of driving itself with either a small amount of human input or none. You get in and, instead of driving the car yourself, you don’t have to do anything. Just sit and relax as the car transports you from A to B. You can admire the passing scenery, catch up with work on your phone or even play free slots no downloads from your gadget on the move.
Though the car does all the work, you can intervene. The vehicle is designed so that at any time and for whatever reason, a human can take over and continue driving as usual. This is to prevent things like accidents or cars getting lost.
As well as physically moving people, a self-driving car checks its surroundings, keeps track of its operating systems and retains complete control of the vehicle. It’s designed to do everything a competent driver would do when driving, though in different ways.
How Does a Self-Driving Car Work?
Highly advanced technology is what powers a self-driving car. Each driverless vehicle uses various physical equipment such as radar, cameras, and sensors. There’s also a built-in computer system that uses AI and other powerful software, both of which use physical equipment to enable the car to move.
If you use a self-driving car to travel somewhere, you would get in and let the car know where you want to go. You can do this through a dashboard screen, an app, or simply by using your voice.
AI is the driving force behind this trend. It works by taking large amounts of data and learning from it to improve its functions, services, and features. Developers ‘train’ a driverless car’s AI by putting it through a series of test drives. The software continuously monitors data and soon learns to identify things you’ll see on a drive, including other vehicles, kerbs, traffic lights, buildings and street signs. By doing this, it can gain more awareness of the world and make better decisions. You can click here to know more.
A Brief History of Self-Driving Cars
The concept of self-driving cars isn’t new. As far back as 1925, a remotely operated, radio-controlled automobile was tested in New York City. Over the years, various companies and organisations have tried to create cars that can drive themselves in some capacity, though none have become widespread.
Some of the biggest names that have been developing driverless vehicles include:
- Ford
- Mercedes-Benz
- Volvo
- Volkswagen
- Audi
Various places have allowed self-driving machines to be tested on public roads; some have allowed them to be used alongside regular, human-driven vehicles. For example, over half of the states in the US have made self-driving cars legal.
Though wheels that drive themselves haven’t become widely used just yet, other types of vehicles don’t have drivers. The Chinese city of Shenzhen has a small collection of self-driving buses; the Docklands Light Railway in London is an example of a train network that operates without drivers.
A big step for self-driving cars came in 2023. The city of Sacramento in California permitted Mercedes-Benz USA to sell or lease to members of the public motorcars with automated driving systems in place. However, people can’t purchase one and go on the roads whenever they like. There are limits on where the vehicle can go; the human must be in control when on city streets, for example. Users must also watch a mandatory video explaining the driverless software before using it.
What Are the Concerns of Self-Driving Cars?
Regular cars undergo extensive testing before being made available for public usage; the same can be said for self-driving vehicles. The tests vary a lot, but the idea is the same: companies that make vehicles need to know they’re safe before being sold. Despite this, there are concerns about the safety of self-driving cars; some people don’t think a computer program can drive an auto as effectively or safely as a human can.
Another concern has to do with legality. All sorts of legal complications arise when driverless vehicles are used on roads. If there’s an accident, does the person in the self-driving car (who isn’t driving) get the blame or not? What if the person grabbed the steering wheel and took over at the last minute but wasn’t quick enough? Would the company behind the AI software be guilty in some way?
The fundamental underlying problem is that no matter how a car’s software is programmed, it can still make mistakes. There’s the additional issue of hacking. Someone operating remotely could hack into a car’s programming and take control of it, potentially endangering lives.
Will Self-Driving Cars Become Commonplace?
In various books, TV shows and films, visions of the future sometimes have self-driving cars as the norm; in other words, they’ve replaced traditional, human-driving vehicles. It remains to be seen whether this will become true. However, if self-driving cars take off and become common, it won’t happen for a while yet. This is because there are still many obstacles in their way, namely legal issues, safety concerns and costs.
Self-driving cars may someday outnumber their human-driven counterparts. But in our lifetime, most vehicles we see on roads will likely have a human in control.
