In this blog post, we will take a look at how far autonomous driving technology has come and consider how it will change our lives and society in the future.
When I leave the house, the car parked in front of the house comes to greet me. I get in the car, tell it my destination, and lie down to watch TV, and before I know it, I’m at my destination. This is not a distant future. When you turn on the autopilot on a Tesla car and enter your destination, the car drives on its own even if you are just sitting in the driver’s seat. This is autonomous driving technology. It is not yet perfect and only works in limited situations, but this technology, which was previously only imagined, is gradually becoming a reality with recent technological developments.
An autonomous vehicle is almost an IT device, except for the body and power. Autonomous vehicles use various sensors to replace human vision. The Tesla Model S, which currently has the most advanced autonomous driving features, has a forward-facing camera, forward radar, ultrasonic sensors, and GPS. The forward-facing camera is the closest to the role of the human eye. It can identify objects in front of it in high definition. It can distinguish colors, so it can determine traffic lights, signs, the brakes of the car in front, and whether the car is reversing. However, because it uses light, it has problems when the weather is bad or when it is difficult to recognize due to headlights in the opposite lane. Front radar and ultrasonic sensors help with this. Front radar uses the Doppler effect like a speed gun to identify moving objects and calculate their speed. It is effective in maintaining a distance from the vehicle in front and is also used in blind spot warning systems and lane departure prevention systems. It is not affected by the weather, but it cannot identify stationary objects. Ultrasonic sensors use ultrasound to identify objects in the surrounding area. They are used as an auxiliary method because they are not precise and cannot identify objects that move faster than walking speed. It is used in low-speed collision avoidance systems and automatic parking functions. GPS tells the current location of the self-driving car. Using a map database, it can identify the conditions of roads, buildings, etc. around the current location. It is not affected by the weather or surrounding obstacles, but cannot be used in tunnels or underground where satellite signals cannot reach.
After receiving information about the surroundings from the sensors, the car is operated software-wise by analyzing it with a computer. It basically steers automatically toward the destination. It maintains the direction and speed of the car through the surrounding road conditions and traffic signs. It also automatically changes lanes and overtakes other cars according to the speed of the surrounding vehicles. It warns the driver of an unexpected collision and automatically makes an evasive maneuver if the driver fails to react in time. The dashboard displays the current speed and status of the car, as well as the surrounding objects and road conditions. Basically, the software runs on the basis of the algorithm input by the developer, but nowadays, like AlphaGo, it is evolving by gradually improving the algorithm through learning from numerous autonomous vehicles around the world using deep learning. This has enabled the software to flexibly cope with situations that the developer did not think of in advance, and it has made driving more reliable day by day.
Operating a self-driving car involves ethical dilemmas. If a self-driving car is driving at high speed and it spots five children in front of it, and the car is unable to stop, and the only two options are to hit the children in front of it and kill them or swerve to the side and kill the driver by hitting a wall, what choice should the self-driving car make? To a third party, saving a larger number of younger children may seem to be the ethically better choice. To a driver, saving one’s own life is the top priority. To an insurance company, it is desirable to have fewer people die. It is impossible to operate in a way that aligns the interests of all these different people. Above all, if a self-driving car were to operate in a way that allowed the driver to choose to die, no one would buy a self-driving car. This ethical dilemma must be resolved before autonomous vehicles are commercialized.
If fully autonomous vehicles are commercialized, the future will change significantly. In the present, when drivers own and drive their own cars, cars are not just a means of transportation, but can be used to express wealth and social status. However, when autonomous vehicles are commercialized, the concept of owning a car will disappear, and there will be a high possibility that people will only pay for the time they use the vehicle. In the future, most people may think of cars as just a means of transportation. With a network of autonomous vehicles, accidents between cars will disappear completely, and other accidents will be significantly reduced. In addition, traffic congestion will disappear, and people will be able to move faster. If travel time is reduced and people can do other things while traveling, individuals will be able to live more efficiently. In particular, if the time required to transport goods is reduced and labor costs are lowered, the overall logistics costs will be reduced, which will lower the overall prices of goods. This is why many people refer to the commercialization of autonomous vehicles as a transportation revolution.
Most car companies are working with IT companies to develop self-driving cars, which will be the biggest market in the future. The development of self-driving cars is accelerating thanks to deep learning. We will soon be able to enjoy the tremendous positive changes that self-driving cars will bring. As self-driving technology advances, the quality of human life is expected to improve significantly. Furthermore, autonomous vehicles will bring about major changes in urban planning and infrastructure. Road design will become more efficient and safer, and parking spaces will be reduced, allowing for more green spaces and public spaces. Autonomous vehicles will have a major impact on our living environment and social structure, going beyond simply being an innovation in transportation.
