Autonomous cars: Can they work?
In the last couple of decades, car manufacturers and roboticists have teamed up to produce a car only dreamed about in science fiction: the self-driving car. These cars are supposed to drive to a designated location completely autonomously, following local road laws, avoiding collisions and reaching the destination unscathed. Until very recently, the self-driving car has struggled with all of these requirements. Even modern cars with anti-crash technology managed to glitch or not activate, with human drivers inside. What’s to say a car, driven solely by a computer, couldn’t cause horrendous accidents with simple programming errors?
Thankfully, the self-driving car won’t be on the roads until its various teething problems are sorted out. Self-driving cars rely on a menagerie of equipment to make sure the car doesn’t veer off-road or collide into traffic: Radar, GPS, laser lights, multiple cameras and odometry sensors are all required to work in tandem with each other to ensure the car knows where it’s going and what’s around it. This complexity will likely make repairing the vehicle prohibitively expensive for early models, as car mechanics have to learn a new set of skills and new replacement components enter the market.
The technology for a self-driving car has already found usage in various militaries around the globe. Self-driving trucks will soon be traversing over mine and IED-laden territory to deliver supplies to soldiers far from their bases, reducing the chance of losing valuable supply staff to a stray IED or vehicular mine. Indeed, the idea of self-driving military vehicles has been a fascinating addition to military strategy, as autonomous supply trucks, drones, reconnaissance vehicles and even AFVs can be controlled remotely or by an AI, but the technology for a fully autonomous combat vehicle is still very early in development and won’t be seen on the battlefield for a while.
Despite the potential disadvantages of the self-driving car, it’s a concept that will become more feasible as the glitches and potential pitfalls are worked out. In another 20 or 30 years, we will likely see the first self-driving cars on the road, capable of following road laws better than the vast majority of human drivers. Like all pioneering technology, it’s unlikely to be cheap or mechanically reliable, but with AI research improving by leaps and bounds it’s unlikely that a self-driving car will suddenly go haywire and mistake the pavement for the road.
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