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Driverless Cars Facts

Driverless Cars Facts
Driverless cars are vehicles that are self-driving and able to navigate the environment without requiring a human. They are also referred to as autonomous cars, robotic cars, and self-driving cars. In many places the cars that are permitted on public roadways are not fully autonomous and a human must still be available to take the steering wheel immediately if required. Cars that will be fully autonomous are in development. In order for an autonomous car to work it must be able to sense its environment. This is done through the use of laser lights, radars, odometry, computer vision and GPS systems that can gather and analyze data to navigate on roadways with other vehicles.
Interesting Driverless Cars Facts:
Driverless cars are able to recreate roadways in three dimensions.
Driverless cars must recognize pedestrians, signage, other vehicles, and traffic lanes in order to function.
An autonomous car would be capable of functioning without human intervention of any kind.
A semi-autonomous car would require driver intervention but be able to provide assistance such as automatic parking and highway driving help.
The first autonomous car prototype was operated by Google under Alphabet Inc. in 2015.
A passenger in a Tesla Model S died in an autonomous car in 2016 when the autopilot system failed to detect a tractor-trailer due to lighting and weather.
It has been estimated that by 2050 almost all vehicles on the road will be autonomous. By 2035 it is estimated that just under 10% will be autonomous.
Human error accounts for roughly 90% of accidents on roadways. The creation of driverless cars was in an effort to reduce accidents.
One study showed that an occupant of a driverless car might be sacrificed by the car itself if doing so would result in saving the lives of many other people on the road.
A 375 mile trip was made in France in 2015 in a driverless car with no human assistance.
Google has more than 12 autonomous cars on the road in Silicon Valley. Out of the 11 accidents none were the fault of the cars.
There are more than 19 automobile and parts manufacturers currently developing autonomous cars.
One of the major issues for driverless cars is the weather. When the weather is bad it results in a huge amount of data that must be processed and it can pose a serious issue with the vehicle's computer and processor.
Because it can take as long as ten seconds for a human to regain control of a driverless vehicle emergency situations may pose a problem when quick action is required.
Driverless cars could help eliminate the issue of drunk driving.
Driverless cars could help eliminate accidents due to texting and cell phone use, as well as distracted driving accidents.
It is estimated that driverless cars will result in less braking and accelerating and therefore less gridlock on highways.
If cars become driverless there will be an estimated 80% less emissions, 90% less accidents, as much as 40% less traffic congestion, and space saved in parking.


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