{"id":223855,"date":"2017-06-27T16:21:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T20:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/progress-on-the-road-to-autonomy-automotive-news-subscription-blog.php"},"modified":"2017-06-27T16:21:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T20:21:26","slug":"progress-on-the-road-to-autonomy-automotive-news-subscription-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/progress\/progress-on-the-road-to-autonomy-automotive-news-subscription-blog.php","title":{"rendered":"Progress on the road to autonomy &#8211; Automotive News (subscription) (blog)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>    A Ford Fusion navigates an autonomous testing site in Ann    Arbor, Mich. Photo credit: FORD  <\/p>\n<p>    ANN ARBOR -- Codrin Cionca's left hand grasps the roof-mounted    grab handle while his right hand rests on his leg. Cionca, a    Ford engineer working on the company's autonomous vehicles,    puts the Fusion's transmission into L, which powers up the    car's self-driving electronics. Then he moves his feet off the    pedals.  <\/p>\n<p>    We're ready to roll.  <\/p>\n<p>    Mcity, located on the campus of the University of Michigan, is    a test course for autonomous light vehicles with many of the    traffic features of urban driving. There are roundabouts,    traffic lights and stop signs, pedestrian crosswalks and other    types of infrastructure that self-driving cars will someday    have to interact with.  <\/p>\n<p>    Of course, Ford wouldn't have invited reporters to ride along    as observers if its fleet of autonomous Fusions couldn't    flawlessly pilot themselves around Mcity. So, while I was not    surprised the cars didn't swerve off the road, hit a pedestrian    crossing the street or veer into the bicyclist ahead of us, I    was impressed with how smoothly the car worked and how quickly    it sensed and adjusted to its surroundings.  <\/p>\n<p>    Engineers have long known they could build self-driving cars --    even before cars had cameras and computers and other    high-tech gear.  <\/p>\n<p>    They've been installing the building blocks for modern    autonomous vehicles since the 1980s, starting with antilock    brakes, traction control, electric power steering,    drive-by-wire, adaptive cruise control, cameras, etc.  <\/p>\n<p>    Now, as engineers tie these components together, along with    lidar, radar and high-definition mapping, the car is basically    becoming a thinking machine that is aware of its place in the    world.  <\/p>\n<p>    The Fusion test drive, for me at least, conveyed that the    mechanical bits won't be the hard part. It'll be the computers    and software that gets all the components to play nicely    together that will be the toughest hurdle to overcome. Think of    it this way: Imagine you are at a dinner table where everyone    speaks a different language. That's what engineers are facing    as they try to make dozens of different technologies work as a    system.  <\/p>\n<p>    When you consider the billions of dollars automakers and    suppliers are investing in automated driving technology, you    expect to see the fast progress that is being made.  <\/p>\n<p>    I tested a Land Rover recently that    basically drove itself short distances off the road using a    technology called \"platooning,\" where the vehicle communicates    with the one ahead of it. So, even if the lines in the road are    not clearly visible and vehicles don't communicate with    buildings and traffic lights, self-driving cars, using    high-definition mapping and other technologies, can still    function safely in certain situations.  <\/p>\n<p>    I believe it's going to be many years, decades perhaps, until    self-driving cars integrate safely onto the nation's roads and    transport passengers 100 percent safely 100 percent of the    time. It's not because the technology won't be ready. It's    already here, and it works today in places like Mcity  <\/p>\n<p>    As we approach a roundabout, the Fusion slows itself smoothly,    then enters and executes the turn, remaining in its lane, and    then exits. No easy feat. But a roundabout is a perfect example    of the difficulty engineers face as they develop self-driving    technology.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"Roundabouts are considered to be very challenging for    automated vehicle technology,\" says Helen Kourous, a Ford    engineer. \"They are very unstructured. No two are alike. You    can find many different configurations. Human drivers can    sometimes get confused in them,\" she says.  <\/p>\n<p>    In geofenced areas, such as the parking lot at Walt Disney    World, a gated community, or a college campus, Level 5    self-driving vehicles make perfect sense, and they will work. I    can see Level 3 vehicles in a few years where vehicles can    drive themselves on highways but must hand off to the human    driver if they can't figure out a situation. And that's about    really all we can expect in the next 25 years.  <\/p>\n<p>    I don't expect in my lifetime to ever ride on a public road in    a Level 5 car, you know, sitting in the back seat reading    Automotive News as the vehicle whisks me to work.  <\/p>\n<p><!-- Auto Generated --><\/p>\n<p>Read the original here: <\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.autonews.com\/article\/20170627\/BLOG06\/170629787\/progress-on-the-road-to-autonomy\" title=\"Progress on the road to autonomy - Automotive News (subscription) (blog)\">Progress on the road to autonomy - Automotive News (subscription) (blog)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> A Ford Fusion navigates an autonomous testing site in Ann Arbor, Mich. Photo credit: FORD ANN ARBOR -- Codrin Cionca's left hand grasps the roof-mounted grab handle while his right hand rests on his leg. Cionca, a Ford engineer working on the company's autonomous vehicles, puts the Fusion's transmission into L, which powers up the car's self-driving electronics.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/progress\/progress-on-the-road-to-autonomy-automotive-news-subscription-blog.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[431575],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progress"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}