Learning Maths and Science Textbook | Page 29

Subject:Autonomous cars About autonomous cars in nutshell An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Many such vehicles are being developed, but as of July 2017 automated cars permitted on public roads are not yet fully autonomous. They all require a human driver at the wheel who is ready at a moment's notice to take control of the vehicle. But in one or two years fully-autonomous cars will appear on the roads. Operating principle The car has many sensors built in to detect the object around it, such as cameras, lasers, gps, and odometry. To process the data which comes from these sensors an avarage self-driving car has more than 50 ECU (Electronic Control Unit) built in. The car is able to identify road signs, traffic lights, and obstacles like a pedestrian or a cyclist. It can also make the best route to your destination using the traffic information and the information from other cars. 28