Nowadays, autonomous vehicles no longer seem unusual, and their introduction for widespread use is not that far off. Nevertheless, cars operating at higher levels of autonomy require certain infrastructure, and their successful operation depends on a variety of factors, including climate and road traffic. A number of technologies that autonomous cars rely upon have been successfully implemented in other areas such as space and maritime operations.
As self-driving cars become more commonplace, urban infrastructure will have to adapt to new situations on the city lanes. Some say that the growing number of autonomous vehicles will reinforce their intercommunication and result in a lesser demand on roads (Duarte & Ratti, 2018). Another consequence of the increased presence of autonomous vehicles is a significant number of charging stations, crucial for keeping the cars running.
Autonomous vehicles are still imperfect, and their performance can easily be impacted by different factors at play. Technical equipment used in self-driving vehicles may be affected by adverse climate conditions; for example, “in snowy conditions, cool temperature affects a camera system because of optical and mechanical disruptions” (Zang et al., 2019, p. 106). Such situations will decrease the level of car’s autonomy and require the driver to take control. Therefore, the technologies allowing cars to be self-driving still have certain limitations and have to be improved for safer use.
The autonomous cars’ controls and features are applied in different spheres of transportation, from drones to space crafts. LIDAR technology is essential for many autonomous vehicles since it allows them to monitor the situation outside; it was successfully used in a Japanese spacecraft HAYABUSA, which explored asteroids (Tsuno et al., 2017). Self-driving cars use Global Navigation Satellite Systems that help locate the vehicle, the use of GGNS is widespread; for example, it was tested in detecting maritime moving targets (Ma et al., 2018). This goes to show that the technologies implemented in self-driving vehicles have the potential to be successfully deployed in other areas.
Despite the fact that the industry of autonomous vehicles is rapidly developing and growing, there still remain challenges concerning safety and infrastructure. Nevertheless, new technologies and innovative solutions used in self-driving cars are already being adopted by other industries and areas, which is beneficial for technological progress. The future of autonomous vehicles remains promising, and the industry is constantly innovating, ensuring that self-driving cars become widespread in the upcoming decade.
References
Duarte, F., & Ratti, C. (2018). The impact of autonomous vehicles on cities: A review. Journal of Urban Technology, 1(16), 3-18. Web.
Ma, H., Antoniou, M., Stove, A. G., Winkel, J., & Cherniakov, M. (2018). Maritime Moving Target Localization Using Passive GNSS-Based Multistatic Radar. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 56(8), 4808-4819. Web.
Tsuno, K., Okumura, E., Katsuyama, Y., Mizuno, T., Hashimoto, T., Nakayama, M., & Yuasa, H. (2017). Lidar on board asteroid explorer Hayabusa. International Conference on Space Optics. Proc. SPIE. Web.
Zang, S., Ding, M., Smith, D., Tyler, P., Rakotoarivelo, T., & Kaafar, M. A. (2019). The impact of adverse weather conditions on autonomous vehicles: Examining how rain, snow, fog, and hail affect the performance of a self-driving car. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, 14(2), 103-111. Web.