Google, Tesla, Nissan: 6 Self-Driving Vehicles Cruising Our Way
Traditional car makers, such as Nissan and Daimler, are joining tech giants like Google in the race to create self-driving vehicles. Here's what you need to know.
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Nissan is just the latest automobile maker to enter the self-driving car market, announcing this week that it would begin testing autonomous cars on the road in its native Japan.
The car company joins of growing roster of other players, such as Daimler, which is currently testing self-driving big rigs on German highways, and Tesla Motors, which offers its Autopilot mode on its Model S.
In addition to automakers, technology giants Google and Apple are hard at work developing their own vehicles. While Google has been regularly posting (and boasting) about its successes, the famously secretive iPhone maker has ensured Project Titan is shrouded in mystery.
A McKinsey survey released in September that polled 3,000 potential owners in the US, China, and, Germany found that consumer interest in self-driving vehicles is high, as long as drivers have the option of taking the wheel when they want to.
Still, even with these vehicles confined to testing grounds right now, there's a lot of hype. Autonomous vehicles like Google's self-driving car and Apple's unofficial Project Titan, have advanced on the curve of Gartner's 2015 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report.
[Apple's Project Titan is a mystery. Here's what we know.]
Self-driving vehicle technology has shifted from pre-peak to the peak of the Hype Cycle, and while autonomous vehicles are still embryonic in their development, this movement represents to Gartner "a significant advancement, with all major automotive companies putting autonomous vehicles on their near-term road maps."
Now, what do you need to know about these self-driving cars, the companies behind them, and what's all this testing about? To answer these and other questions, InformationWeek has assembled a collection of the current crop of self-driving cars to give you a good idea as to where this market is going, and how long it will take to really accelerate.
Just this week, Japanese automaker Nissan announced it would start testing self-driving vehicles. The company is developing an advanced form of vehicle intelligence called Nissan Intelligent Driving, which is composed of various innovative features that will be introduced in stages. By 2018, Nissan plans to implement a multiple-lane piloted drive that can conduct lane changes on highways.
Nissan's vehicle is equipped with millimeter wave radar, laser scanners, cameras, high-speed computer chips, and other features that help allow the vehicle to operate in an autonomous manner. Currently in its prototype stages, the laser scanner determines the distance between the vehicle and its surroundings that enables the vehicle to navigate routes in tight spaces.
The self-driving Mercedes-Benz Actros truck is equipped with the Daimler's Highway Pilot system, which is designed for autonomous driving on public roads. Among the sensors on the Actros are proximity control and drowsiness detection that warns drivers when they are fatigued, which are linked with the sensors of the Highway Pilot, including radar and stereo camera.
Tesla Version 7.0 software allows the car's sensors to deliver a range of new active safety and convenience features, designed to work in conjunction with the automated driving capabilities already offered in Model S. This combined suite of features represents a fully integrated autopilot system involving four different feedback modules: camera, radar, ultrasonics, and GPS.
While truly driverless cars are still a few years away, Tesla Autopilot functions like the systems that airplane pilots use when conditions are clear, which means the driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car. The car can also scan for a parking space, alert you when one is available, and parallel park on command.
Google's fleet of more than 20 self-driving vehicles and its team of safety drivers have logged about 1.7 million miles -- both manually and autonomously. Google's prototype vehicles are currently out navigating the same area north and northeast of downtown where their Lexus vehicles have been driving by themselves for the last couple of months.
Back in April, automotive technology specialist Delphi completed the first successful coast-to-coast trip by an automated vehicle, an Audi Q4 SUV nicknamed "Roadrunner," which drove from Treasure Island in San Francisco to New York -- a distance of nearly 3,400 miles. The Audi was equipped with six long-range radars, four short-range radars, and three vision-based cameras, among other sensors.
The nine-day trip, which crossed 15 states and Washington, D.C., was planned to expose the technology to complex driving situations such as traffic circles, bridges, tunnels, construction zones, a variety of weather conditions, and of course, aggressive drivers. Delphi officials said the vehicle was in fully automated mode for 99% of the drive.
We don't have a whole lot to go on so far with Project Titan. There are no renderings or preliminary sketches, but we do know that Apple has been hiring experts in autonomous vehicle technology. However, we believe that Apple's first all-electric car won't be fully self-driving. That technology will be integrated at a later date, and remains part of Apple's long-term strategy in the market.
We don't have a whole lot to go on so far with Project Titan. There are no renderings or preliminary sketches, but we do know that Apple has been hiring experts in autonomous vehicle technology. However, we believe that Apple's first all-electric car won't be fully self-driving. That technology will be integrated at a later date, and remains part of Apple's long-term strategy in the market.
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