An autonomous vehicle, capable of driving completely by itself, is
nascent technology, and as such can be nerve-racking. But when the
sci-fi overtones die down, what is left is a deeply tested artificial
intelligence system that is much like a human driver – only safer.
Shifting from semi- to fully autonomous
There
are many vehicles on the road that already incorporate some level of
autonomy. Nissan's current Safety Shield tech suite incorporates systems
such as adaptive cruise control – which can slow down or speed up a
vehicle automatically by using sensors to determine to the location of
other vehicles around it – and a 360-degree camera-view function. Many
luxury sedans, including the
Infiniti Q50,
Mercedes-Benz S-Class and
Lincoln MKZ, apply corrective steering if they sense they are wandering out of their lane.
Moving from technologies like these to full autonomy is a huge step. But Dr Maarten Sierhuis, research director at Nissan’s
new tech facility
in Silicon Valley, California, says the company and other automakers
are already making inroads. He frames the next development phases as
going "from safety technologies that intercept or warn the driver – and
the driver being in control all of the time – to a technology that
basically can make decisions like a human in any driving situation."
Nissan opened its Silicon Valley research centre in February, and
collaborates with teams at its corporate base as well as research
universities in Japan to develop the autonomous driving initiative. The
company is building a dedicated proving ground in Japan, which is
expected to be finished in 2014.
Building on layers of artificial intelligence
Before
it commercialises autonomous vehicles, Nissan must build a layered
artificial intelligence system that controls the vehicle, senses
external information and observes and perceives its surroundings,
Sierhuis said. These vehicles will need to gather information and make
predictions based on what they see, just like humans use their eyes and
ears to gather information to be processed.
Sierhuis framed the
advantage of autonomous systems over human drivers in terms of their
dispassion. Humans, he said, drive "in anticipation of something that
might happen.” The benefit, then, of autonomous vehicles “is the speed
at which [they] can make those decisions." And the difference is
substantial. His research deals in milliseconds. Autonomous vehicle
software processes multiple hypotheses quickly, weighing any number of
risk factors and potential outcomes, before deciding and acting on just
one. This is not unlike humans, of course, but it is done much faster.
"Everybody
understands that it's not an easy task, but we are committed to it and
we've been working on it for a while. And we think we can crack that,"
Sierhuis said.
Exploring new territory
It's not just the
technical hurdles Nissan will have to overcome; social and regulatory
challenges lay ahead as well. “There are so many independent factors
that play a role here," Sierhuis said. The difficulties will be
overcome, he said, only through rigorous on-road testing, so drivers and
regulators can see its benefits – indeed, the advantages.
For all
its talk about autonomy, Nissan is still a company that produces
hardcore sports cars like the GT-R and Z. Engineering autonomy into cars
will not necessarily mean engineering out enjoyment, a challenge that
all automakers must reckon with. "I think people like the excitement of
driving and I think people like the pleasure of driving, so I think that
won't change," Dr Sierhuis said. He frames autonomous driving as just
one more technology, like direct fuel injection or run-flat tires, which
make driving better. "I think people will like it, people will use it
and people will enjoy driving more because of it. And as a consequence,
we will be safer on the road. That, I think, is a great thing."
