The Pros And Cons Of Autonomous Vehicles

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4. Technologies
We have covered the ethical problems, however, there are still some technical challenges that we need to overcome. In General problems with technology, we will first dive into the current technology and their problems. Subsequently, we will discuss, in broad terms, what technical problems autonomous cars still need to overcome. Lastly, we will analyse how the AVs need to be tested, and how to know if they are really better than human-controlled vehicles. After that, we will explore Different approaches to autonomous systems, where we will discuss the shortcomings in specific techniques used for autonomous vehicles. Different approaches to software challenges: localization, perception, and mapping.
4.1 General problems with …show more content…

In order to prove that autonomous cars are better than humans, tests and experiments are required. The 2013 US human-fatality rate was 1.11 fatalities per 100 million miles.[25] Autonomous vehicles need to drive for a total of 275 million miles, while having a better human-fatality rate, to prove they are less deadly than human drivers.[21] But simply letting these cars drive around for days is not an efficient method. “If 100 autonomous vehicles drove 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at an average speed of 25 miles an hour, it would take more than ten years to achieve 275 million miles.” according to Nidhi Kalraan and Susan M. Paddock (2016).[26] A better way to handle these tests is to run simulations. The driving system runs through an algorithm that tests various situations, in order to find out if the system makes the right decisions. Via this method a lot of time is saved because testing miles are …show more content…

Software systems are mainly focused on three areas of automation technology, namely localization, perception and mapping.[21]

To begin with, localization. An autonomous vehicle must know where certain objects in its environment are located.[21] This is crucial for the decision-making progress to decide where to go. Moreover, the vehicle has two ways to gather information about its environment and perceive its vicinity. Firstly, the car possesses sensors and cameras that can identify objects.[27] Secondly, the car has access to GPS information that can be used as a reference for its location and the location of other objects.[21] The two available approaches differ in the fact that they mainly use one of the methods and use the other to confirm it. The practical uses differ as well. The system that mainly uses GPS is easier to implement, but is not as accurate as the other system which mainly uses its sensors and cameras. Designers can choose to differentiate between rural and busy urban areas while choosing the optimal