Autonomous vehicles

 Machine learning and AI are foundational elements of autonomous vehicle systems. Vehicles are trained on complex data  with machine learning, which helps to improve the algorithms they operate under. AI enables vehicles’ systems to make decisions without needing specific instructions for each potential situation.

In order to make autonomous vehicles safe and effective, artificial simulations are created to test their capabilities. To create such simulations, black-box testing is used, in contrast to white-box validation. White-box testing, in which the internal structure of the system being tested is known to the tester, can prove the absence of failure. Black-box methods are much more complicated and involve taking a more adversarial approach. In such methods, the internal design of the system is unknown to the tester, who instead targets the external design and structure. These methods attempt to find weaknesses in the system to ensure that it meets high safety standards.

As of 2024, fully autonomous vehicles are not available for consumer purchase. Certain obstacles have proved challenging to overcome. For example, maps of almost four million miles of public roads in the United States would be needed for an autonomous vehicle to operate effectively, which presents a daunting task for manufacturers. Additionally, the most popular cars with a “self-driving” feature, those of Tesla, have raised safety concerns, as such vehicles have even headed toward oncoming traffic and metal posts. AI has not progressed to the point where cars can engage in complex interactions with other drivers or with cyclists or pedestrians. Such “common sense” is necessary to prevent accidents and create a safe environment.

In October 2015 Google’s self-driving car, Waymo completed its first fully driverless trip with one passenger. The technology had been tested on one billion miles within simulations, and two million miles on real roads. Waymo, which boasts a fleet of fully electric-powered vehicles, operates in San Francisco and Phoenix, where users can call for a ride, much as with Uber or Lyft. The steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal operate without human guidance, differentiating the technology from Tesla’s autonomous driving feature. Though the technology’s valuation peaked at $175 billion in November 2019, it had sunk to just $30 billion by 2020. Waymo is being investigated by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after more than 20 different reports of traffic violations. In certain cases, the vehicles drove on the wrong side of the road and in one instance, hit a cyclist.