Future of autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicle technology could change how we live and move around in the future in cities but we need to take care of issues such as malfunction of technology before we go full throttle on this.

 

Malfunction of technology may lead to potential accidents and a total stoppage of autonomous vehicle technology, or in simple terms, of self-driven cars.

Self-driven car technology must gain the trust of
people so as to progress -- Photo: Dezeen.com.

 

We are witnessing battery fires in electric vehicles (EVs), and so, we need to become mature in this segment before we implement EVs on a larger scale. The same applies to self-driven vehicles.

 

Recently, Tesla boss Elon Musk was pitching for self-driven cars but his current bid was blocked by the US authorities as these cars are yet to be fully tested on the road to guarantee that they will not meet with any accident and create monumental damage.

 

Self-driven vehicles are right now used for services like parcel delivery and waste collection but it could be a threat to jobs by trying to address worker shortage and cut congestion.

 

Technological progress and regulatory green light are factors that would enhance the production of autonomous or self-driven vehicles and ensure their mass adoption.

 

But only public acceptance can ensure their long-term success. For this, the tech must achieve perfection, free of any glitches.

But public acceptance may not be an easy job. Trials of self-driven vehicles have seen public protests and there have been attacks on vehicles as well as threats against the operators.

 

According to a study, trust remains a big concern so far as autonomous vehicle tech is concerned.

 

Researchers have seen another problem in autonomous vehicles: They say that non-verbal communication between such vehicles and other road users like pedestrians could see huge gaps.

 

For instance, a man walking abruptly on the road (who may almost hit a vehicle) could come as a challenge for such autonomous vehicles.

 

So, the artificial intelligence (AI) of these vehicles has to be really at an advanced level to understand this behavior and adjust accordingly.

 

In the longer term, this information may be communicated with the help of augmented reality, according to a study. The survey called for giving this information to the vehicle via advanced AI.

 

This will make the vehicle understand that it needs to take a decision very quickly to avoid accidents with such traffic violators.

 

Self-driven cars will not be having a humanoid robot. The car, instead, would have an automated infrastructure.

 

So psychologically, people would feel such cars are less reliable compared to vehicles with robots and the former may not gain acceptance very easily.

 

According to another study, external human-machine interface can gain the trust of road users in autonomous vehicles.

 

In a study of crossing scenarios, 80 per cent of participants felt safe if an external display communicated the vehicle’s intention, making people feel that someone is talking to them. This could be an acceptable solution.

 

The success of autonomous vehicles also hinges on proactive policies of governments.

 

So, the future of autonomous or self-driven vehicles would depend on several factors — and among them are trust between road users and the vehicle, ability of the vehicle to communicate with the public, advancing of AI tech and innovative government policies.