More and more people are incorporating wearable devices like smartwatches into their lives. But these wearables are a driving distraction that the public and law enforcement should be aware of.
LiDAR helps an autonomous vehicle ‘visualize’ what’s around it.
Yulong Can with data from Baidu Apollo
Driverless vehicles rely heavily on sensors to navigate the world. They’re vulnerable to attack if bad actors trick them into ‘seeing’ things that aren’t there, potentially leading to deadly crashes.
There’s a common, popular and well-studied method to ensure new technologies are safe and effective for public use – even if researchers don’t fully understand how they work.
It would be better if people weren’t afraid of self-driving cars.
mato181/Shutterstock.com
If autonomous vehicles are going to be safer than human drivers, they’ll need to improve their ability to perceive and understand their surroundings – and become the ultimate defensive drivers.
How will we react when cars start driving themselves?
Patramansky Oleg/Shutterstock.com
How might we, and our nation’s roads and highways, need to change as autonomous vehicles become more ubiquitous? We know a lot of the answers, but not all of them.
An NVIDIA-powered Audi needs no driver.
AP Photo/John Locher
Together, three recent events mark a crucial turning point in the development of autonomous cars: They are both safer and more advanced than ever before.
Whom should I save?
Illustration via shutterstock.com
Improved autonomous vehicle technology could reduce the tens of thousands of annual U.S. deaths due to human error behind the wheel. Are driverless cars the next big public health intervention?
Most road-safety initiatives prioritise a rapid clearing of the road so cars can pass.
Thales/flickr
In contrast to increases in vehicle safety over the decades, we have seen little new technology to ensure the safety of pedestrians – and current innovations are still based on a car-centric approach.
The first driverless car tests are set to commence in South Australia this year.
Volvo
Theft of vehicles is about as old as the notion of transport – from horse thieves to carjackers. No longer merely putting a brick through a window, vehicle thieves have continually adapted to new technology…
Faulty ignition switches like this one were at the core of the troubles at GM, which led to record recalls last year.
Reuters
The US’s top auto safety agency last week fined Japanese car company Honda Motor a record US$70 million for failing to report hundreds of fatal accidents and injuries over the last 11 years. The unfiled…
When all your appliances are internet-enabled, whose hands are holding the remote control?
Hands image via www.shutterstock.com.
An ever-increasing number of our consumer electronics is internet-connected. We’re living at the dawn of the age of the Internet of Things. Appliances ranging from light switches and door locks, to cars…