First cars

• 1769 - the first steam-powered automobile
• 1807 - internal combustion engine - hydrogen
• 1864 - gasoline powered combustion engine
• 1886 - first "production" car - several identical copies
• 1888 - first electric car

Automation

• 1921 - invention of automatic transmission
• 1940 - first cars with automatic transmission
• 1986 - Navlab 1 - Carnegie Mellon University
  • ​​36 kph

Automation

• 1921 - invention of automatic transmission
• 1940 - first cars with automatic transmission
• 1986 - Navlab 1 - Carnegie Mellon University
  • ​​36 kph​
  • ALVINN
  • D*

Grand Challenge

• DARPA
• $1 Million prize
• third of military vehicles autonomous by 2015
• 2004 - nobody finished
• 2005 - all but one finished
• 2007 - urban challenge
  • avg speed of the #1: 22.53 kph

Google Self-Driving Car Project

• Google works on creating fully autonomous car
• 1.5M miles driven
• car designed from
  scratch
  • sensors first

Other automakers

• Tesla Motors
  • Fleet learning => ~100M miles in autonomous mode
• Audi A7 "Jack" - level 3
• Volvo XC90
• BMW iNEXT - 2021

Czech Republic

• Škoda
  • line centering, other assistants
• Valeo
• RoboAuto
  • academic research
  • VUT Brno + Artin
• FEL ČVUT

What it takes to build an autonomous car

Path planning

• How to get from point A to point B
• Easy task - many navigation programs in use every day bi millions of drivers

Precision locating

• locate on the map
• position on the road
  • current line
• distance from other traffic participants

Maneuvering

• steering the wheels
• pushing the pedals
• changing driving mode
  • drive
  • reverse
  • park
• turning on/off different types of lights
  • signaling change of direction
  • being visible
• how long to perform each action
• how to combine the actions

Adapting to real world

• even if you plan to go in a certain direction, you are not guaranteed to go there
  • malfunction
  • incorrect measurements from sensors
  • external conditions
• how does the car behave when one of the brakes does not work?

Be allowed to drive

• you cannot drive your AV everywhere
  • even for testing
• bureaucracy
• the systems must work well and be durable

Persuade people to use the car

• not everyone trusts AV
  • "75% of US drivers"
• "When my personal computer does not work well all the time, how shout I expect the AV to be any different?"

How does the car see the world arround?

Radar

Lidar

Camera

• detection of traffic signs and traffic lights
• detection of non-moving obstacles
• stereo cameras - distance measurement
• what spectrum does it operate in?

Pattern recognition

• Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR)
  • find and classify traffic signs in a photo
• Identify objects based on the partial 3D shape

Environment modeling

• other cars
• pedestrians
• cyclists
• crossroads
• traffic lights
• street signs
• children & animals
• railroad crossings
• construction works
• local driving rules
• emergency vehicles
• driving schools

Odometry

Predicting traffic

• Avoid collision paths
• Avoid blind spots
  • The humans do not have 360° view and use mirrors instead
• Goals of other traffic participants
  • Anticipate trajectories of others
• Predict sudden changes of direction
  • Prospect Theory - taking risks

Driving strategies

Defensive driving

• Avoid blind spot
• Keep distance from other cars
• Anticipate sudden changes of direction
• Pedestrians or animals entering the road
  • children near playgrounds
  • animals in a forest at night

Damage control

• stop to avoid secondary collisions
• break to minimize impact velocity
• steer the car to collide 
  • sides are most vulnerable

Feel natural to the passenger

• The passenger must feel comfortable
• Be predictable
• Try to drive like a human would

Talk to others

• Automated cars can talk to each other
  • Cars can know exactly where others will go and not only predict their paths
  • Coordinated 
• Sharing environment data
  • car can see further
  • not having to stop at the crossroads

Law and Ethics

Autonomous cars

on public roads

• Nevada (2011)
  • testing on public roads - Google
• United Kingdom (2013)
• France (2014)
• California
  • completely driverless cars in 2018 (not yet passed)

Can you make the car break the rules?

• Speeding
• Parking at forbidden places
• Going past "No entry" sign
• "Do not use EET" button on new Czech cash registers...

Loss of jobs

• Taxi drivers
• Truck drivers
• Bus drivers
• Not a new (ethical) problem
  • discussion about basic income
  • "electronic persons" - should pay social security and health insurance

Increasing mileage

• "Send your car to go shopping and then find itself a parking spot where it would wait until you need it."
• More traffic
• More pollution

Who would be responsible for a car accident?

• The driver (who was asleep at the moment)?
• The automaker?
  • manufacturers can already be held responsible for safety defects in the cars - e. g. Ford Pinto in 
• The human driver in the other car?

The trolley problem

• philosopher Philippa Foot - 1967
• several scenarios
  • two tracks
  • fat man
  • fat villain
  • looping

Objections to the TP

• Even humans cannot choose the right answer
• The AI does not have the full information at the moment of taking the decision
  • age, gender, number of children, ...
• There is no correct answer => the AI cannot chose the right answer
• AI does not have to make the correct decision, but rather not the wrong decision
• Low probability of such situation

Questions

Sources

• Google Self driving car
  • https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar
• Autonomous Vehicle Implementation Predictions
  • Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
  • http://www.vtpi.org/avip.pdf
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • ​http://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crash-Avoidance/Automated-Vehicles

Sources

• The Simple Solution to Traffic
  • CP Grey - Youtube channel
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE&t=8s
• Responsibility for Crashes of Autonomous Vehicles: An Ethical Analysis
  • Hevelke A, Nida-Rümelin J (2015) Science & Engineering Ethics, 21:619–630
  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München