We all thought that flying cars are going to be the next major step for transportation in the future. Self-driving cars only came into the conversation when the world started looking for a new way to make driving safer and easier.
Millions of lives that are lost each year from road accidents due to human error. No wonder one of the hottest car news in Australia is on driverless cars.
How Does a Self-Driving Car Work?
A fully self-driving car is an automobile that sticks to the rules of the road, follow safety measures and respond immediately to unexpected circumstances at all times. It needs to be better than your average driver in order to be accepted.
This kind of accuracy can only be attained by using advanced built-in systems that regularly check the surroundings of the vehicle and perform the proper action autonomously. Although manufacturers will have varying systems in place, a self-driving car would often have three core parts:
GPS
This system is required in all driverless cars because it tells them where they have to go and how it can take the passengers there. This technology isn’t very different to what we have today but having it installed in a car to help in automatic decision making can be very useful.
Detection Technology
A self-driving car will have to use an advanced detection system to be aware of its surroundings. As of now, many driverless vehicles use LADAR which are lasers that measure distance, cameras to identify obstacles and radars.
Onboard Computers
Cars have long had electronic networks and onboard computers installed and this isn’t new car news. But the driverless cars that are being developed today require multiple very advanced computers and an electronic network that is more sophisticated than we normally have. The reason for this is because such a vehicle will have to analyse a lot of data quickly in order to react appropriately. Aside from that, it will have to feed this data through algorithms to determine the right course of action to perform.
Conclusion
People in Australia have long been scouring the web for new car news articles, especially on self-driving car technology. However, fully autonomous vehicles are not on the roads as of yet but many assisted driving technologies can be found already. These types of systems are already the stepping stones that will lead us to driverless technology in Australia.
The good news about this is that you can obtain such features without having to spend so much. Some of these vehicles may even save you some money in the future since it will help you avoid accidents while minimising your insurance expenses.
You should consider getting a car with assisted driving technologies when:
- You're quite inattentive as the safety systems on such a vehicle will help you when driving
- You're looking for a new car that will last a long time
- You're not as confident in your parking ability