IF YOU BELIEVE the buzz coming from the auto industry, we're only a couple years away from being able to hail a self-driving car or take a road trip with no one at the wheel. The problem is, experts have been making that prediction for years. The timeline isn't evolving for lack of trying--rolling out autonomous driving technology is just really hard. Here's a breakdown of how it all works and which companies are racing to bring self-driving cars to the masses.
Autonomous vehicles are powered by artificial intelligence that's trained to detect patterns in steering, braking, accelerating, and responses to objects on the road.
THE BRAINS OF THE OPERATION
Estimated portion of all
5G that self-driving cars
and other internet-
connected vehicles will
make up in 2023.
Source: Gartner
RECENT DEALS
One of the industry's most popular computers, the Pegasus--manufactured by Nvidia, which supplies Uber, Baidu, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Audi--executes 320 trillion operations per second.
53%
A vehicle's on-board A.I. systems can learn from other vehicles on the same network, so in theory every mile driven by a single car makes all the others smarter.
June 2019: Apple acquires self-driving software startup Drive.ai, renewing public interest in its secretive car endeavor, Project Titan.
RECENT DEALS
In June 2019, a truck built by Starsky made a nine-mile journey on a Florida highway--lane changes and all--without a human on board.
It's not just sedans driving themselves. Some companies are creating autonomous tractor trailers, which doesn't bode well for the 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S.
KEEP ON TRUCKIN'
In August 2019, a group of truck drivers held a rally in support of a proposed bill that would ban autonomous trucks in the state.
MISSOURI
Embark, a San Francisco-based startup that's raised $117 million, has launched a freight service that sends autonomous trucks between Los Angeles and Phoenix, albeit with human supervisors on board.
Number of vehicles a white-hat hacker was able to break into in one swoop in April 2019. He said he was capable of tracking their locations and shutting off their engines.
27,000
August 2019: Computing firm NN/g purchases security software company Arilou Technologies.
RECENT DEALS
While some car companies build their own security software, startups that focus on cybersecurity for automobiles include Dellfer, Mocana, and Guardknox.
Among the potential dangers mentioned in a 2018 paper from the University of Michigan: "hackers who would try to take control over or shut down a vehicle, criminals who could try to ransom a vehicle or its passengers, and thieves who would direct a self-driving car to relocate itself to the local chop-shop."
Designing cars to be internet-connected devices opens them up to new kinds of risks.
CYBERSECURITY: SAFETY FIRST
May 2019: Aurora, an Amazon-backed company founded by self-driving car engineers from Google, Tesla, and Uber, buys lidar startup Blackmore for an undisclosed amount.
RECENT DEALS
Others are building entire suites of equipment. General Motors-backed Cruise Automation makes autonomous vehicle cameras, radar,
and sensors--plus all the software that goes with them.
Some startups develop individual pieces of hardware, like Ouster, which creates sensors that use a laser technology called lidar to determine the distance of nearby objects.
Driverless vehicles perceive the world around them using a combination of hardware including cameras, radar, and sensors, plus GPS and mapping technology.
IT STARTS WITH PERCEPTION
has referred to lidar as an overly expensive and unnecessary "crutch." Teslas are equipped instead
with eight cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, front-facing radar, GPS, and mapping chips.
Elon Musk
June 2019: Uber buys MightyAI, a startup that improves machine vision data sets by paying users
to identify objects in photos.
RECENT DEALS
Uber will be releasing a new car in partnership with Volvo in 2020.
You can already hail driverless cabs in cities including Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh, thanks to beta tests from Uber, Lyft, Waymo, and a handful of others--though there are still operators on board.
The ride-hailing industry has made serious progress in recent years--but not without mishaps.
THE CABS ARE (ALMOST) HERE
Portion of Waymo riders
who have left negative reviews, with complaints ranging from roundabout routes to uncomfortable driving techniques.
30%
October 2019: Tesla buys computer vision startup Deepscale.
Tesla says its autonomous, electric Semi truck, expected to begin production in 2020, will travel up to 500 miles on a single charge.
August 2019: UPS buys a minority stake in TuSimple, a four-year-old autonomous trucking startup that says its vehicles have a vision range of 1,000 meters.
After a pedestrian was fatally struck by an autonomous Uber near Phoenix in 2018, the company pulled its self-driving cars off the road. Uber says it has since updated the parts of its software that were to blame and its self-driving taxis are back on the road.
IF YOU BELIEVE the buzz coming from
the auto industry, we're only a couple years away from being able to hail a self-driving car or take a road trip with no one at the wheel. The problem is, experts have been making that prediction for years. The timeline isn't evolving for lack of trying--rolling out autonomous driving technology is just really hard. Here's a breakdown
of how it all works and which companies
are racing to bring self-driving cars to
the masses.
IT STARTS WITH PERCEPTION
Driverless vehicles perceive the world around them using a combination of hardware including cameras, radar, and sensors, plus GPS and mapping technology.
Some startups develop individual pieces of hardware, like Ouster, which creates sensors that use a laser technology called lidar to determine the distance of nearby objects.
Others are building entire suites of equipment. General Motors-backed Cruise Automation makes autonomous vehicle cameras, radar, and sensors--plus all the software that goes with them.
ELON MUSK
referred to lidar as an overly expensive and unnecessary "crutch." Teslas are equipped instead with eight cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, front-facing radar, GPS, and mapping chips.
RECENT DEALS
May 2019: Aurora, an Amazon-backed company founded by self-driving car engineers from Google, Tesla, and Uber, buys lidar startup Blackmore for an undisclosed amount.
KEEP ON TRUCKIN'
It's not just sedans driving themselves. Some companies are creating autonomous tractor trailers, which doesn't bode well for the 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S.
In June 2019, a truck built by Starsky made a nine-mile journey on a Florida highway--lane changes and all--without a human on board.
Embark, a San Francisco-based startup that's raised $117 million, has launched a freight service that sends autonomous trucks between Los Angeles and Phoenix, albeit with human supervisors on board.
Tesla says its autonomous, electric Semi truck, expected to begin production in 2020, will travel up to 500 miles on a single charge.
MISSOURI
In August 2019, a group of truck drivers held a rally in support of a proposed bill that would ban autonomous trucks in the state.
RECENT DEALS
August 2019: UPS buys a minority stake in TuSimple, a four-year-old autonomous trucking startup that says its vehicles have a vision range of 1,000 meters.
THE BRAINS OF THE OPERATION
Autonomous vehicles are powered by artificial intelligence that's trained to detect patterns in steering, braking, accelerating, and responses to objects on the road.
One of the industry's most popular computers, the Pegasus--manufactured by Nvidia, which supplies Uber, Baidu, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Audi--executes 320 trillion operations per second.
A vehicle's on-board A.I. systems can learn from other vehicles on the same network, so in theory every mile driven by a single car makes all the others smarter.
53%
Estimated portion of all
5G traffic that self-driving cars and other internet-connected vehicles will
make up in 2023.
Source: Gartner
RECENT DEALS
June 2019: Apple acquires self-driving software startup Drive.ai, renewing public interest in its secretive car endeavor, Project Titan.
CYBERSECURITY: SAFETY FIRST
Designing cars to be internet-connected devices opens them up to new kinds of risks.
Among the potential dangers mentioned in a 2018 paper from the University of Michigan: "hackers who would try to take control over or shut down a vehicle, criminals who could try to ransom a vehicle or its passengers, and thieves who would direct a self-driving car to relocate itself to the local chop-shop."
While some car companies build their own security software, startups that focus on cybersecurity for automobiles include Dellfer, Mocana, and Guardknox.
27,000
Number of vehicles a white-hat hacker was able to break into in one swoop in April 2019. He said he was capable of tracking their locations and shutting off their engines.
RECENT DEALS
August 2019: Computing firm NN/g purchases security software company Arilou Technologies.
THE CABS ARE (ALMOST) HERE
The ride-hailing industry has made serious progress in recent years--but not without mishaps.
You can already hail driverless cabs in cities including Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh, thanks to beta tests from Uber, Lyft, Waymo, and a handful of others--though there are still operators on board.
After a pedestrian was fatally struck by an autonomous Uber near Phoenix in 2018, the company pulled its self-driving cars off the road. Uber says it has since updated the parts of its software that were to blame and its self-driving taxis are back on the road.
27,000
Number of vehicles a white-hat hacker was able to break into in one swoop in April 2019. He said he was capable of tracking their locations and shutting off their engines.
RECENT DEALS
August 2019: Computing firm NN/g purchases security software company Arilou Technologies.
Uber will be releasing a new car in partnership with Volvo in 2020.
Illustration by Andrew Archer
Illustrations by Andrew Archer