UPSC Express

About Autonomous Vehicles

• Autonomous vehicles are mostly light motor vehicles like cars with highest level of automation.
• They can drive without a human driver and thus called self-driving cars.

Basic architecture of Autonomous vehicles: Sense-plan-act architecture

Sense

• Sensors
  • In order to sense the environment, they use a network of sensors including cameras, radars, infrared, Lidar (light detection and ranging) etc.
• Navigation
  • Further a combination of GPS and inertial navigation system is used to know the position of the self-driving car and any object around it. (obstacles)
• Communication systems
  • The autonomous cars basically use vehicle to vehicle technology/ vehicle to infrastructure technology to communicate with the objects in the environment like traffic light, parking sign, a railway crossing or other sign boards.

Plan

• AI-based data processing
  • Once the sensors and other communication systems collects the data, the vehicles use AI-based processing of the data to make sense of it. (perceive the data)
• Control
  • Once AI-based processing of data is done, the electronic control systems tell the car whether to slow down, speed up, stop etc.

Act

• Actuators
  • Actuators are electro-mechanical systems that run the car.
  • The decisions of the controllers are translated into actions with the help of actuators.

Challenges

• Reliability
  • The autonomous vehicles are effective in certain driving conditions but fail in many. (Eg. Snow covered roads, heavy traffic roads, narrow roads)
• Infrastructure migration
  • Vehicle to infrastructure technology is important for communication with objects like traffic signal, parking lots, sign boards etc.
  • As a result the infrastructure in the environment has to be upgraded which is both cost and time intensive.
• Safety
  • The failure of any system in the sense-plan-act architecture may lead to accidents affecting the public safety.
• Acceptance
  • Self-driving cars are still at the nascent stage and thus has no societal and consumer acceptance
• Legal and regulatory standards
  • Before we migrate into autonomous vehicles, stric legal and regulatory standards should be place.
  • Designing appropriate legislations is a challenge given the complexity of systems used in these cars.
• Privacy and litigation risks