Colman Engineering, PLC | Civil, Environmental, and Water Resources Engineering Services

  • Home
  • Services
    • Land Development
    • Water Resources
    • Environmental
  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Jobs
  • Home
  • Services
    • Land Development
    • Water Resources
    • Environmental
  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Jobs

Blog

Discussing current issues in engineering

The Future of Driverless Cars

8/5/2019

 
Picture
Attribution: Automobile Italia, (CC BY 2.0)
You might have noticed more and more mention of autonomous cars recently—big companies like Tesla and Google are working on taking advantage of what many hope is the next big technological leap. Driverless cars come with many potential benefits including safer driving, but there are still issues to work out before making autonomous driving mainstream. One of them is basic reasoning.

Humans are remarkably good at navigating roads we’re unfamiliar with; even when using a GPS, we rely on observation and our senses to determine where we need to go. Driverless cars, however, can’t reason in the same way.  Part of the problem is due to how these cars navigate now: in every new area, they first use complex maps to analyze all new roads, then generate 3D scans to rely on. This process is time-consuming and not always reliable in more rural areas.

Researchers at MIT are working on this shortfall by creating a system that uses only simple maps and visual data to help driverless cars navigate routes in new, complicated environments. By creating an end-to-end navigation system, offering new maps available for cars to download, and creating an easier way to store and process maps, these cars should be able to navigate more easily in unfamiliar areas. Since car-to-infrastructure communication is essential for driverless cars to function smoothly, researchers are hoping this new system will make the process run more efficiently.

It turns out that even smart, driverless cars need to depend on human intuition to fill in the gaps that advanced technology can’t match! For more on MIT’s project, see the article here on Science Daily. 

Comments are closed.

    Colman Engineering, PLC

    A professional engineering firm located in Harrisonburg, VA

    Archives

    January 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

Picture
Colman Engineering, PLC
1123 S. High Street
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
contact@colmanengineering.com
(540) 246-3712
Colman Engineering, PLC

© Colman Engineering, PLC  |  All Rights Reserved