According to a press release by General Motors, vehicles that partially drive themselves will be available by the middle of the decade and sophisticated self driving by the end of the decade. “These advances in autonomous vehicle technology are built on leading-edge advanced active safety systems,” says Alan Taub, vice president of Global Research and Development.
The building blocks needed to enable self-driving are cameras, radar, GPS and portable communications devises to ensure a connected car. GM is currently developing advance safety systems that will provide the foundation for self-driving in the future. This includes:
• Crash-avoidance system using a high-resolution digital camera to detect other vehicles and objects as well providing lane-departure warnings.
• Vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems to build a network between vehicles in order to share vital information to avoid crashes, for example stalled vehicles, slippery roads and sharp curves ahead.
• The EN-V mobility concept that combines GPS with vehicle-to-vehicle communication to provide collision avoidance, pedestrian protection and even platooning (autonomous road train for vehicles). It will go as far as self parking and even picking up the driver if commanded to do so with the use of his smartphone.
Only time will tell if the prediction is accurate, but the fact remains that, in the future, our safety will be in the hands of computers. Do you trust this technology to take care of your loved ones…?
