People
normally enjoy driving as it gives them a sense of freedom, not to forget
status too if one’s behind a nice set of wheels! However, the technological
developments over the past decade have led to creation of self-driving cars
today, which have increased everyone’s curiosity. These autonomous vehicles
(AVs) are proving to be amongst the biggest inventions of the modern-day world.
The fact that they require little or absolutely no human input is a huge
accomplishment for the science world; and the companies behind them continue to
surprise everyone with even better technologies.
These
cars can be immensely useful for people who are easily distracted by traffic,
music systems, cell phones, etc. How about finishing your presentation on route
to the office while your car drives you to your destination! Senior people,
people with disabilities and the ones without driving license can benefit
immensely from such vehicles too. Here’s some more info on the self-driving cars that will become a
commonplace in many parts of the world soon.
Let’s
go over some of the technologies that power these autonomous cars.
The Location and Navigation Systems
The
Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS)
technology is combined together to obtain location-related information like the
longitude and latitude of the car, from a satellite. This information along
with the road details (provided by digital map database and location systems)
results in the creation of the navigation system. Presently, some of the main
manufacturers of GPS / Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) include Thaskes
Navigation, Leica, Novatel, CSI Wireless and more.
Map Matching and Electronic Maps
Electronic
map data covers details like geographical characteristics, signal information,
traffic information, road data and more. Currently, the HD maps available are
ADAS Level. They’re applied to the Level 2 / Level 3 self-driving.
LiDAR
Light
Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology is used by self-driving cars to create
a model of their surroundings, for rendering of accurate geographical data, on
a three-dimensional map. LiDAR provides higher resolution than RADAR as it is
based on lasers rather than radio waves. It accurately detects, tracks and maps
the surroundings of the car, transmitting data literally at the speed of light.
However, this technology doesn’t work very well in extreme weather conditions
such as in smog, smoke, fog or snow.
In
fact, LiDAR sensors are so sharp that they can detect even small-sized objects
like a golf ball rolling on the street. They don’t just track the position of
the ball, but also its direction and speed, enabling the car to decide whether
it should stop or continue moving ahead.
Radar
Radio
Detection and Ranging (RADAR) technology is used by self-driving cars to
supplement their high-resolution sensors during the times when the visibility
is low, for instance at night or in a storm. Radar does its work by emitting
radio waves which get reflected back to the source and provide distance, speed
and direction related information. Even though Radar is pretty accurate in all
conditions and doesn’t cost much, it doesn’t provide detailed data on detected
objects.
Some of the other notable technologies that power these autonomous vehicles include computer vision, cameras, complementary sensors and neural network accelerators (NNAs).
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