Autonomous vehicles.

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Today, it seems inevitable that the autonomous vehicle is going to become mainstream.

While years prior marked the beginning of exciting progress and developments around autonomous vehicles, today, automotive companies are beginning to focus the majority of their research and development spend on preparing for autonomous and electrification trends.

Autonomous driving: Levels and devices.

With each model year, the industry sees new driver-assist functions become options or standard features. And, this is no longer limited to just premium models. This trend is helping to move the driving public from their current comfort zone of being in control and driving the vehicle to a new reality where humans will participate in the process of being transported, but the actual transportation will be fully automated.

Levels of autonomous driving:

• LEVEL 0 - Automated system has no vehicle control but may issue warnings.
• LEVEL 1 - Driver must be ready to take control at any time. The automated system may include features such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Parking Assistance with automated steering, and LaneKeeping Assistance (LKA) Type II in any combination.
• LEVEL 2 - The driver is obliged to detect objects and events and respond if the automated system fails to respond properly. The automated system executes accelerating, braking, and steering. The automated system can deactivate immediately upon takeover by the driver.
• LEVEL 3 - Within known, limited environments(such as freeways), the driver can safely turn their attention away from driving tasks.
• LEVEL 4 - The automated system can control the vehicle in all but a few environments such as severe weather. The driver must enable the automated system only when it is safe to do so. When enabled, driver attention is not required.
• LEVEL 5 – Other than setting the destination and starting the system, no human intervention is required. The automatic system can drive.

In self-driving vehicles, because there is no driver, the experience is all about the passenger. However, on some level, people will always want to drive, but not in the context of a 2.5-hour commute or urban congestion.
They will want to drive on weekends and for fun. And so, automotive manufacturers need to consider an experience in self-driving cars that also allows a place for the driver and provide them with a good experience.
The possibility of cars driving themselves is becoming a reality thanks to a collaboration between several advanced technologies, such as millimetre-wave radars, cameras, ultrasonic sensors,lidar scanners, GPS technology, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity, and proprietary algorithms.
But, with it, comes risk.
Any technology connected to the Internet has a higher threat to cybersecurity. This is all new territory for automotive manufacturers, and itis driving partnerships between Silicon Valley and the automotive world in unprecedented ways.

This cooperation and partnership between OEMs and technology leaders is a key dynamic going forward—though this is perhaps a more jarring realization for the new, technology-based players than the traditional industry. The OEMs have long integrated technology into vehicles, going back decades.

Partnering with technology companies is an extension of a mindset, if not the actual model, that’s been prevalent in the industry for a generation.
The challenge for technology companies is that, while they are well ahead of the OEMs in terms of developing the technology to make AV work, they lack the manufacturing and supply chain capabilities and infrastructures to effectively dominate the AV market. Thus, we anticipate more collaboration, such as that of Nvidia, a company well-known for its work in making computer graphics cards, which has teamed up with Bosch and Daimler in the race to develop autonomous automobile technology. To further bolster the race to AV, consumer acceptance of fully autonomous vehicles is on the rise.
It’s clear that everyone is betting on an unprecedented payoff from autonomous vehicles.

In 2018, BMW opened its second autonomous driving campus to work on self-driving pilot projects, this one near Munich, Germany. Yet, an important element to the long-term success and the proliferation of autonomous vehicles—similar to electric vehicles—is the willingness and commitment by municipalities and governments to invest in the underlying infrastructure needed to support AV at large scales, such as lanes, off-ramps, AV-specific parking scenarios, and so on.