The future of driving
with the Google Self Driving Car. How video analytics will make your life easier.
Planning your next road trip? Imagine a world where you
could just enter in your car, set up a destination, and then relax. This is
almost real!
The first to imagine such car was Norman bel Geddes who
designed General Motors’ Futurama exhibit for the ‘39 World’s Fair in New York’.
Consider as a dream as this time, it is on the way of becoming real. Google’s
project, which is led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of Stanford’s
Artificial Intelligence Lab, is one of the most promising improvements for the
car industry.
As Larry Burns, former GM research chief, professor at
University of Michigan and a Google adviser said: “Autonomy
changes everything. Giving automobiles the ability to drive themselves is the
biggest thing to happen to the automobile since the automobile".
How does it work?
Google self-driving car is an extension of the already
existing driver aids that you can find in some luxury cars such as the BMW I3
or Mercedes. The techniques used, are
lane keeping systems, adaptive cruise control system, auto parking system,
emergency braking and satellite navigation systems. The driverless car is basically using all
these systems together with the help of specifics software. The car covered
with sensors and cameras is also able to keep track of the surrounding
environment. Every element such as lane marking, reading signs, traffic lights and
pedestrians are detected and analyzed with the help of cameras, radars, lidars
(specific type of radar) and video analytics software.
Moreover in order to have an accurate positioning the Google
self-driving car is using specific technology such as gyroscopes and
accelerometers. It also scans its surroundings and collects as much data as possible,
which are then analyzed in ordered to extract precious data in case of
accidents.
What are the benefits
of such innovations?
Such innovations will completely change the
relationship we currently have with the automobile. It will also reduce
drastically the number of car accidents, reduce the traffic flow and allow
disable or old people to finally use their car. Also application such as Uber would
be able to increase its efficiency and reduce its costs by spreading their
driverless car fleet in important cities around the world.
What is the
main issue?
However there is some concern related to this major
innovation. The main challenge for autonomous vehicles is the way they
communicate and interact with other cars. Several situations such as deciding
who should proceed first around an obstruction needs a great deal of situation analysis
and elaborated video analytics software.
To conclude video analytics is again used for a major
innovation that will probably change our everyday life. Combined with other
technology video analytics can really improved our daily life and object that
are today consider common will maybe be perceived in a complete different way
tomorrow.
References:
I saw this technology from an article. And there is video in youtube about Autonomous Vehicle technology. In Korea, there is a contest for Autonomous Vehicle. Many team from diverse university taking part in the contest. This is URL of the video.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbJPxUPFDoc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M03M-mNRvdQ
First one is recorded in perspective of driver. And second is recorded by following car.
I think it is useful technology because we can do many things if we can use our hands free even when we are driving.
I really hope to have such a car. I have kind of a fear when I drive because I am not a good driver. I am very much worried about an accident whenever behind the wheel. This kind of technology will relieve me of such worries.
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