Vehicular automation

Automation for various purposes of vehicles
vehicles relying completely either on automation or remote control

Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle such as a car, lorries, aircraft, or watercraft. A vehicle using automation for tasks such as navigation to ease but not replace human control, qualify as semi autonomous, whereas a fully self operated vehicle is termed autonomous. That is a road traffic vehicles. For those vehicles, a specific difference is legally defined between advanced driver assistance system and (more advanced) autonomous/automated vehicles due to differences of liability for the driver and/or the entity driving the vehicle. The technology involved in implementing autonomous vehicles ranges from changes to the vehicle to providing support in the driving environment. Automated vehicles present safety concerns, especially in land transport, and in road traffic, given the complexity of driving, geographical/cultural differences, and road conditions. Various technological challenges need to be overcome to make autonomous vehicles robust and scalable. Vehicular automation topic is notable for road traffic due to the number of vehicles and drivers but present specific concerns in an environment subject to traffic collisions due to the need to share the road with other road users. Autonomy implies that the vehicle is responsible for all perceptual, monitoring and control functions. Automated systems may not be capable of operating under all conditions, leaving the rest for a human operator. A further subtlety is that while a vehicle may attempt to operate under all circumstances, the vehicle may require a human to assume control in unanticipated circumstance arises or when the vehicle misbehaves.

The primary means of implementing autonomous vehicles is through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In order for full autonomous vehicles to be implemented, the lower levels of automation must be thoroughly tested and implemented before moving on to the next level. Through implementing autonomous systems, such as navigation, collision avoidance and steering, autonomous vehicle manufacturers work towards higher levels of autonomy by designing and implementing different systems of the car. While many of these companies are continuously developing technologies to be implemented into their autonomous vehicles, the general consensus is that the underlying technology is still in need of further development before fully autonomous vehicles are possible. Arguably one of the most important systems of any autonomous vehicle, the perception system must be fully developed and well tested in order for autonomy to advance. However, much of modern day vehicle components can still be used in autonomous vehicles, such as the use of the automatic transmissions and operator protection equipment like airbags. Along with accommodating the driver, autonomous vehicles also impose a technological factor onto the environment around it, generally needing a higher sense of connectivity in the vehicle's environment. With this new factor to consider, many urban governments are considering becoming a smart city in order to provide a sufficient foundation for autonomous vehicles. Automated driving systems have been known to be successful in situations like rural road settings. Rural road settings would be a setting in which there is lower amounts of traffic and lower differentiation between driving abilities and types of drivers. "The greatest challenge in the development of automated functions is still inner city traffic, where an extremely wide range of road users must be considered from all directions." This technology is progressing to a more reliable way of the automated driving cars to switch from auto mode to driver mode. Auto mode is the mode that is set in order for the automated actions to take over, while the driver mode is the mode set in order to have the operator controlling all functions of the car and taking the responsibilities of operating the vehicle (Automated driving system not engaged). This definition would include vehicle automation systems that may be available in the near term—such as traffic jam assist, or full range automated cruise control—if such systems would be designed such that the human operator can reasonably divert attention (monitoring) away from the performance of the vehicle while the automation system is engaged. This definition would also include automated platooning (such as conceptualized by the SARTRE project).

The Sartre (safe road trains for the environment) project's main goal is to create platooning, a train of automated cars, that will provide comfort and have the ability for the driver of the vehicle to arrive safely to a destination. Along with the ability to be along the train, drivers that are driving past these platoons, can join in with a simple activation of the automated driving system that correlates with a truck that leads the platoon. Sartre is taking what we know as a train system and mixing it with automated driving technology. This is intended to allow for an easier transportation through cities and ultimately help with traffic flow through heavy automobile traffic. In some parts of the world the self driving car has been tested in real life situations such as in Pittsburgh. Self driving Uber vehicles were tested in Pittsburgh, though the tests were paused for nine months after a self driving car killed a woman in Arizona. In addition to testing self driving cars, automated busses have been tested in California. The lateral control of the automated buses uses magnetic markers such as the platoon at San Diego, while the longitudinal control of the automated truck platoon uses millimeter wave radio and radar. Current examples around today's society include the Google car and Tesla's models. Tesla has redesigned automated driving, they have created car models that allow drivers to put in the destination and let the car take over. These are two modern day examples of the automated driving system cars.

Many automakers such as Ford and Volvo have announced plans to offer fully automated cars in the future. Extensive research and development is being put into automated driving systems, but the biggest problem automakers cannot control is how drivers will use system. Tesla Motor's has one recorded incident that resulted in a fatality involving the automated driving system in the Tesla Model S. The accident report reveals the accident was a result of the driver being inattentive and the autopilot system not recognizing the obstruction ahead. especially when novel algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence approaches are employed which require extensive training and validation data sets. The implementation of automated driving systems poses the possibility of changing build environments in urban areas, such as the expansion of suburban areas due to the increased ease of mobility. There are still many obstacles in developing fully autonomous Level 5 vehicles, which is able to operate in any conditions. Currently, companies are focused on Level 4 automation, which is able to operate under certain environmental circumstances. Prediction and trust among autonomous vehicles: Fully autonomous cars should be able to anticipate the actions of other cars like humans do. Human drivers are great at predicting other drivers' behaviors, even with a small amount of data such as eye contact or hand gestures. In the first place, the cars should agree on traffic rules, whose turn it is to drive in an intersection, and so on. This scales into a larger issue when there exists both human operated cars and self driving cars due to more uncertainties. A robust autonomous vehicle is expected to improve on understanding the environment better to address this issue. The usefulness factor studies whether or not autonomous vehicles are useful in that they provide benefits that save consumers' time and make their lives simpler. How well the consumers believe autonomous vehicles will be useful compared to other forms of transportation solutions is a determining factor. There have also been proposals to adopt the aviation automation safety regulatory knowledge into the discussions of safe implementation of autonomous vehicles, due to the experience that has been gained over the decades by the aviation sector on safety topics.

In some countries, specific laws and regulations apply to road traffic motor vehicles (such as cars, bus and trucks) while other laws and regulations apply to other ground vehicles such as tram, train or automated guided vehicles making them to operate in different environments and conditions.

Since 1999, the 12 seat/10 standing ParkShuttle has been operating on an exclusive right of way in the city of Capelle aan den IJssel in The Netherlands. The system uses small magnets in the road surface to allow the vehicle to determine its position. The use of shared autonomous vehicles was trialed around 2012 in a hospital car park in Portugal. From 2012 to 2016 the European Union funded CityMobil2 project examined the use of shared autonomous vehicles and passenger experience including short term trials in seven cities. This project led to the development of the EasyMile EZ10. In the 2010s, self driving shuttle became able to run in mixed traffic without the need for embedded guidance markers. So far the focus has been on low speed, , with short, fixed routes for the "last mile" of journeys. This means issues of collision avoidance and safety are significantly less challenging than those for automated cars, which seek to match the performance of conventional vehicles. Many trials have been undertaken, mainly on quiet roads with little traffic or on public pathways or private roadways and specialised test sites. The capacity of different models varies significantly, between 6 seats and 20 seats. (Above this size there are conventional buses that have driverless technology installed.) In December 2016, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority has announced its intention to replace the Jacksonville Skyway monorail with driverless vehicles that would run on the existing elevated superstructure as well as continue onto ordinary roads. The project has since been named the "Ultimate Urban Circulator" or "U2C" and testing has been carried out on shuttles from six different manufacturers. The cost of the project is estimated at $379 million. In January 2017, it was announced the ParkShuttle system in the Netherlands will be renewed and expanded including extending the route network beyond the exclusive right of way so vehicles will run in mixed traffic on ordinary roads. The plans were delayed and the extension into mixed traffic is now expected in 2021. In July 2018, Baidu stated it had built 100 of its 8 seat Apolong model, with plans for commercial sales. As of July 2021 they have not gone into volume production. In August 2020, it was reported there were 25 autonomous shuttle manufacturers, including the 2GetThere, Local Motors, Navya, Baidu, Easymile, Toyota and Ohmio. In December 2020, Toyota showcased its 20 passenger "e Palette" vehicle, which is due to be used at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Toyota has announced it intends to have the vehicle available for commercial applications before 2025. In January 2021, Navya released an investor report which predicted global autonomous shuttle sales will reach 12,600 units by 2025, with a market value of EUR 1.7 billion. In June 2021, Chinese maker Yutong claimed to have delivered 100 models of its 10 seat Xiaoyu 2.0 autonomous bus for use in Zhengzhou. Testing has been carried out in a number of cities since 2019 with trials open to the public due to commence in July 2021. Self driving shuttles are already in use on some private roads, such as at the Yutong factory in Zhengzhou where they are used to transport workers between buildings of the world's largest bus factory.

Autonomous buses are proposed as well as self driving cars and trucks. Grade 2 level automated minibuses were trialed for a few weeks in Stockholm. China has also a small fleet of self driving public buses in the tech district of Shenzhen, Guangdong. The first autonomous bus trial in the United Kingdom commenced in mid 2019, with an Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC single decker bus modified with autonomous software from Fusion Processing able to operate in driverless mode within Stagecoach Manchester's Sharston bus depot, performing tasks such as driving to the washing station, refuelling point and then parking up at a dedicated parking space in the depot. Passenger carrying driverless bus trials in Scotland commenced in January 2023, with a fleet of five identical vehicles to the Manchester trial used on a 14 mile (23 km) Stagecoach Fife park and ride route across the Forth Road Bridge, from the north bank of the Forth to Edinburgh Park station. Another autonomous trial in Oxfordshire, England, which uses a battery electric Fiat Ducato minibus on a circular service to Milton Park, operated by FirstBus with support from Fusion Processing, Oxfordshire County Council and the University of the West of England, entered full passenger service also in January 2023. The trial route is planned to be extended to Didcot Parkway railway station following the acquisition of a larger single decker by the end of 2023. In July 2020 in Japan, AIST Human Centered Mobility Research Center with Nippon Koei and Isuzu started a series of demonstration tests for mid sized buses, Isuzu "Erga Mio" with autonomous driving systems, in five areas; Ōtsu city in Shiga prefecture, Sanda city in Hyōgo Prefecture and other three areas in sequence. In October 2023, Imagry, an Israeli AI startup, introduced its mapless autonomous driving solution at Busworld Europe, leveraging a real time image recognition system and a spatial deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to mimic human driving behavior.

The concept for autonomous vehicles has been applied for commercial uses, such as autonomous or nearly autonomous trucks. Companies such as Suncor Energy, a Canadian energy company, and Rio Tinto Group were among the first to replace human operated trucks with driverless commercial trucks run by computers. In April 2016, trucks from major manufacturers including Volvo and the Daimler Company completed a week of autonomous driving across Europe, organized by the Dutch, in an effort to get self driving trucks on the road. With developments in self driving trucks progressing, U. S. self driving truck sales is expected to reach 60,000 by 2035 according to a report released by IHS Inc. in June 2016. As reported in June 1995 in Popular Science magazine, self driving trucks were being developed for combat convoys, whereby only the lead truck would be driven by a human and the following trucks would rely on satellite, an inertial guidance system and ground speed sensors. Caterpillar Inc. made early developments in 2013 with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University to improve efficiency and reduce cost at various mining and construction sites. In Europe, the Safe Road Trains for the Environment is such an approach. From PWC's Strategy& Report, self driving trucks will be the source of a lot of concern around how this technology will impact around 3 million truck drivers in the US, as well as 4 million employees in support of the trucking economy in gas stations, restaurants, bars and hotels. At the same time, some companies like Starsky, are aiming for Level 3 Autonomy, which would see the driver playing a control role around the truck's environment. The company's project, remote truck driving, would give truck drivers a greater work life balance, enabling them to avoid long periods away from their home. This would however provoke a potential mismatch between the driver's skills with the technological redefinition of the job. Companies that buy driverless trucks could massively cut down on costs: human drivers will no longer be required, companies' liabilities due to truck accidents will diminish, and productivity will increase (as the driverless truck doesn't need to rest). The usage of self driving trucks will go hand in hand with the use of real time data to optimize both efficiency and productivity of the service delivered, as a way to tackle traffic congestion for example. Driverless trucks could enable new business models that would see deliveries shift from day time to night time or time slots in which traffic is less heavily dense.

Company Details Waymo Semi In March 2018, Waymo, the automated vehicle company spun off from Google parent company Alphabet Inc., announced it was applying its technology to semi trucks. In the announcement, Waymo noted it would be using automated trucks to move freight related to Google's data centers in the Atlanta, GA area. The trucks will be manned and operated on public roads. Uber Semi In October 2016, Uber completed the first driverless operation of an automated truck on public roads, delivering a trailer of Budweiser beer from Fort Collins, CO to Colorado Springs. The run was completed at night on Interstate 25 after extensive testing and system improvements in cooperation with the Colorado State Police. The truck had a human in the cab but not sitting in the driver's seat, while the Colorado State Police provided a rolling closure of the highway. At the time, Uber's automated truck was based primarily on technology developed by Otto, which Uber acquired in August 2016. In March 2018, Uber announced it was using its automated trucks to deliver freight in Arizona, while also leveraging the UberFreight app to find and dispatch loads. Embark Semi In February 2018, Embark Trucks announced it had completed the first cross country trip of an automated semi, driving 2,400 miles from Los Angeles, CA to Jacksonville, FL on Interstate 10. This followed a November 2017 announcement that it had partnered with Electrolux and Ryder to test its automated truck by moving Frigidaire refrigerators from El Paso, TX to Palm Springs, CA. Tesla Semi In November 2017 Tesla, Inc., owned by Elon Musk, revealed a prototype of the Tesla Semi and announced that it would go into production. This long haul, electric semi truck can drive itself and move in "platoons" that automatically follow a lead vehicle. It was disclosed in August 2017 that it sought permission to test the vehicles in Nevada. Starsky Robotics In 2017, Starsky Robotics unveiled its technology that allows to make trucks autonomous. Unlike its bigger competitors in this industry that aims to tackle Level 4 and 5 Autonomy, Starsky Robotics is aiming at producing Level 3 Autonomy trucks, in which the human drivers should be prepared to respond to a "request to intervene" in case anything goes wrong. Pronto AI In December 2018, Anthony Levandowski unveiled his new autonomous driving company, Pronto, which is building L2 ADAS technology for the commercial trucking industry. The company is based in San Francisco.

In 2018 the first autonomous trams in Potsdam were trialed.

An automated guided vehicle or automatic guided vehicle (AGV) is a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the floor, or uses vision, magnets, or lasers for navigation. They are most often used in industrial applications to move materials around a manufacturing facility or warehouse. Application of the automatic guided vehicle has broadened during the late 20th century.

Aircraft has received much attention for automation, especially for navigation. A system capable of autonomously navigating a vehicle (especially aircraft) is known as autopilot.

Various industries such as packages and food experimented with delivery drones. Traditional and new transportation companies are competing in the market. For example, UPS Flight Forward, Alphabet Wing, and Amazon Prime Air are all developing delivery drones. Zipline, an American medical drone delivery company, has the largest active drone delivery operations in the world, and its drones are capable of Level 4 autonomy. However, even if technology seems to allow for those solutions to function correctly as various tests of various companies show, the main throwback to the market launch and use of such drones is inevitably the legislation in place and regulatory agencies have to decide on the framework they wish to take to draft regulation. This process is in different phases across the world as each country will tackle the topic independently. For example, Iceland's government and departments of transport, aviation, police have already started issuing licenses for drone operations. It has a permissive approach and together with Costa Rica, Italy, the UAE, Sweden and Norway, has a fairly unrestricted legislation on commercial drone use. Those countries are characterized by a body of regulation that may give operational guidelines or require licensing, registration and insurance. On the other side, other countries have decided to ban, either directly (outright ban) or indirectly (effective ban), the use of commercial drones. The RAND Corporation thus makes the difference between countries forbidding drones and those that have a formal process for commercial drone licensing, but requirements are either impossible to meet or licenses do not appear to have been approved. In the US, UPS is the only one with the Part 135 Standard certification that is required to use drones to deliver to real customers.

Autonomous boats can provide security, do research, or perform hazardous or repetitive tasks (such as guiding a large ship into a harbor or transporting cargo).

Sea Machines offers an autonomous system for workboats. While it does require a human operator to oversee its actions, the system takes care of a lot of active domain perception and navigation duties that normally a few members of the crew would have to do. They use AI to have situational awareness for different ships within the route. They utilize camera, lidar, and proprietary software to inform the operator of its status.

Buffalo Automation, a team formed from the University of Buffalo, creates technology for semi autonomous features for boats. They started out creating navigation assist technologies for freighters called AutoMate, which is like having another very experienced “first mate” that will look out for the ship. The system helps make twists and turns of difficult waterways.

This Massachusetts based company has led the forefront of unmanned sailing drones. The Datamarans are out autonomously sailing around to collect ocean data. They are created to enable large payload packages. Due to the automated system and their solar panels, they are able to navigate for longer periods of time. More than anything they boast their technologies on advanced metocean surveys which collect “wind velocity profiles with altitude, water current, conductivity, temperature profiles with depth, hi resolution bathymetry, sub bottom profiling, magnetometer measurements”

This autonomous unmanned vessel uses both solar and wind energy to navigate.

Sea Hunter is an autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) launched in 2016 as part of the DARPA Anti Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program.

Underwater vehicles have been a focus for automation for tasks such as pipeline inspection and underwater mapping.

This robot is a four legged nimble robot that was created to be able to navigate through many different terrain outdoors and indoors. It can walk on its own without colliding into anything. It utilizes many different sensors, including 360 vision cameras and gyroscopes. It is able to keep its balance even when pushed over. This vehicle, while it is not intended to be ridden, can carry heavy loads for construction workers or military personnel through rough terrain.

Another concern related to vehicle automation is its ethical issues. In reality, autonomous vehicles can encounter inevitable traffic accidents. In situations like that, many risks and calculations need to be made in order to minimize the amount of damage the accident could cause. When a human driver encounters an inevitable accident, the driver will take a spontaneous action based on ethical and moral logic. However, when a driver has no control over the vehicle (Level 5 autonomy), the system of an autonomous vehicle is the one who needs to make that instant decision. the implementation of fully automated vehicles in traffic where semi automated and non automated vehicles are still present might lead to many complications.