Automatic Emergency Breaking (AEB) has just been declared a requirement for all new cars in Europe to reach a maximum safety rating. The same requirement is said to be applied in the US by 2022. New sensing technologies are being applied to AEB systems constantly to improve safety in all cars, and with the current state of development of driverless cars, AEB technology is quickly improving.
Fusion of different sensing technologies is critical for the further development of AEBs. Some of the different sensing technologies currently being used to produce better AEBs are radar, LiDAR, ultrasonics, and numerous types of cameras. These devices are being used to gather data so that programs can, with numerous types of inputted data, make the best possible decisions for how cars should break in emergency situations. Recreating the 360 degree surrounding area around the car is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of AEBs, and AEB systems try to not only produce a simulation of the surrounding area, but monitor the motion, temperature, and sounds of objects around the car, as well as simulating different outcomes based on different motions that the car could perform to ensure the most safe solution. Also, all of this must be done as quickly as possible to avoid missing potentially life-saving opportunities.
Europe has decided, as of 2018, that AEBs are advanced enough now that all new cars produced must have them. One reason for this is the incorporation of new millimeter-wave radars that will be able to improve the effecincy of all AEBs. This decision has also led the US to plan on implementing the same regulations by the year 2022.
http://www.electronicdesign.com/automotive/how-will-radar-sensor-technology-shape-cars-future
Immediately after reading this, I found it almost impressive that Europe decided to make this safety feature a requirement for all cars. The EU seems to be taking the correct steps to protecting the general public, and preventing life threatening events. I am interested in seeing if requiring this feature will cause the sale price of cars to go up—due to the extra cameras and sensor technology needed. Additionally, I am pleased to see that America will be requiring this as well, eventually making this feature common. Currently, cars in the U.S. with AEB, are considered to be special. AEB is a selling point for many car consumers, but soon, it will become something expected to be included in a car. Lastly, I would like to learn more about how this law is going to impact the car companies that already have AEB. These companies will no longer specifically appeal to customers as having a novelty feature, possibly causing their sales to be negatively impacted.
I can understand you concerns about self-driving cars being scary however the truth is they are already less dangerous then humans driving. This is due to a number of factors for one the lack of distractions that AI has. Human drivers are easily distracted by things weathere it’s there phone, there child crying in the back or just something on the road. “They look around the car 360 degrees. They’re able to take in way more information than a human driver and they don’t get distracted,” said Selman in the CNN Money article. There are well over 4 million crashes each year in the US, and that is for no reason other than people being flawed. That’s not to say that driverless cars have no flaws however most research being done shows how much safer they already are. But with fully autonomous vehicles there is the very fear of “what happens If the grid goes down”? Or “what happens if someone hacks into the cars”? These are very good points and certainly need to be addressed however the idea that human interaction isn’t the problem and we need more of us and less technology is inherently flawed. True autonomy is much safer then where we are now, but it is true that until we get there misleading people calling things like adaptive cruise control “auto piolet” is the real problem.
https://medium.com/@parismarx/are-self-driving-cars-really-safer-than-human-drivers-56a72bde2f41
https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/21/technology/self-driving-car-safety/
While I like the idea of an extra safety feature, what happens if the car breaks when there is nothing there and it causes an accident? Who at that point is liable? It has happened before with Toyota in 2015 where they had to recall 31,000 cars due to the AEB detecting objects and stopping when it should not stop.
I understand that technology advances and gets better over time, but even now cars are recalled for issues that 10 years ago people were thought to be a perfected science. Mistakes happen! And unlike a mistake in the airbag system or seatbelt locks, this kind of mistake could cause an unnecessary accident.
Another point to think about is this kind of technology can be hacked. It was shown in both Tesla and Jeep models that cars can be hacked. In theory, hackers could remotely activate the emergency brakes on the car.
Personally, I think right now there are too many variables in this technology and I hope American car companies do a bit more research before making it the standard of safety.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/automatic-braking-sometimes-brakes-for-nothing-062717.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-tesla-hack-20150806-story.html
This is a really amazing use of technology. Anything that can help save lives is worth researching and fine tuning. Personally, I am not on board with self driving cars. Technology should not be given power over human beings. Some self driving cars seem to be edging on that line. However, giving cars just enough power to step in when necessary could be life changing. I hope vehicular advancements are not taken too far.
There has already been a self driving car accident involving Uber. The self driving Uber unfortunately had its emergency brakes disabled, but the driver of the Uber was not notified of this, resulting in the death of an innocent pedestrian. Although this accident was not entirely the car’s fault, the miscommunication between computer and human is ultimately to blame. If that Uber had been an ordinary car rather than a self driving car, Elain Herzberg would still be alive.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/meriameberboucha/2018/05/28/uber-self-driving-car-crash-what-really-happened/#132bcf474dc4