SOME FACTS ABOUT DRIVERLESS CARS

The photo is taken from https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/self-driving-cars-will-change-world-including-housing/

The future never looks exactly how we imagined it in the past. In the past one could not even imagine the driverless cars. Nowadays, new car technologies are successfully coming into being.

WHAT ARE DRIVERLESS CARS?

A driverless car, also known as robotic cars, self-driving car, and driverless vehicle is an autonomous vehicle that can perform all functions related to everyday driving, parking, and commuting. It is a technology that senses the environment and without human interference navigates the way of the vehicle to the destination point.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Driverless cars are equipped with the most modern technologies. These include advanced GPS, computer vision, radar and LIDAR. The driverless technology is based on using numerous cameras and sensors detecting and collecting distance and speed data from the objects, cars, and the road. This information is sent to a control module.

This module is equipped with unique software that calculates information from the sensors and cameras to actuate certain devices, such as the braking system pump and steering motor. For travelling between two points, the autonomous technology uses the GPS system, which works with an inertial navigation system for calculating speed, direction, orientation, and position of the surrounding objects, the vehicle itself, and other vehicles on the road.

This data is stored on a cloud and is continuously updated on the onboard computer, including data collected from other vehicles. The technology allows users to input preset journeys or perhaps send a message to the car with the help of your smartphone to pick you up from your current location. The technology is thought to be potentially safer and more efficient than common cars and is invented to avoid collisions and reduce fatalities and injuries related to accidents.

HOW SAFE CAN THIS TECHNOLOGY BE?

Of course, one of the most interesting questions is whether a driverless vehicle can be safer than common cars. Yes, it can be! According to reports by NHTSA, 93% of accidents are caused by driver errors, not by technical ones. There are more than 5 million vehicle accidents worldwide. For example, just getting intoxicated drivers away from the steering wheel can reduce this high number of accidents by 39%.

So, does this mean there will be zero accidents? Well, nobody can state this. This is mainly because the autonomous vehicles are still in the testing and prototype phase.

MAIN ADVANTAGES OF DRIVERLESS CARS USAGE

There are many potential advantages driverless cars usage. Besides the absence of human errors while driving, there also would be little need for driver's licenses, highway patrols, extensive traffic laws, and even stop signs or street lights. Also, such vehicles would not be affected by jerky or erratic human drivers and would, therefore, be able to drive very close together. This could lead to a situation in which high road density would not have a detrimental effect on speed; so many cars could travel close together while maintaining a high average speed.