Autonomous Vehicles Have Entered the Off-Road Market [Connected and Automated Vehicles]

Abstract

The past year has taught us to expect the unexpected. While digital meetings have gotten increased momentum, the pandemic has put most other platforms for technical development on hold. I have written before in this column about the fact that autonomous vehicles are emerging. A few years ago, there was a sort of mental setback when several companies pioneering autonomous vehicle testing said that the task was more complex than people may think and that fully autonomous vehicles were much further into the future than it may appear from the outside. Based on the stories collected for this issue, however, it is apparent that autonomous off-road vehicles like baggage tractors, drone-based surveillance systems, and vehicles in mines or construction sites are already operational. This may have several different causes. From a researcher's perspective, I would say that it is not until you start to really dig into a topic that you realize its full complexity and how little you actually know. It is therefore likely that the company representatives expressing doubt about fully autonomous vehicles a few years back were behaving just like normal Ph.D. students who generally always doubt their ability before they start to produce sensational results. It is also likely that off-road vehicles are easier to design, in that they operate in a confined area that can be better controlled and defined. This also affects the communication abilities of the vehicles. Basically, all autonomous vehicles, whether they operate off- or on-road, need to be connected. In a confined area, it is possible to deploy Wi-Fi access points enabling reliable connectivity to the autonomous vehicles, coupled with teleoperating abilities for added safety. For on-road vehicles covering a larger geographical area, another type of connectivity is needed, which requires harmonization among technology providers, vehicle manufacturers, legislation, and spectrum authorities. One show-stopper in this respect is the recent spectrum setbacks in the United States, where the entire spectrum previously reserved for dedicated short range communication (DSRC), was given away to Wi-Fi and cellular technology <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">[1]</xref>. The spectrum authorities in Europe and Australia support a technologically agnostic approach, but the setback in the United States is also affecting these markets as it is unclear what will happen with the huge investments already made in DSRC and its European counterpart called ITS-G5. However, as I wrote in a previous column, the vehicle industry is using this peculiar time to analyze and plan ahead. To this end, Waymo is simulating how the Waymo Driver would behave if involved in a fatal crash reconstructed from statistics obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)?it turns out that autonomous vehicles avoid many accidents simply by following the traffic rules. In addition, Volvo Cars has launched a portal making different resources (such as car dashboard data, charge/fuel level, and distance traveled) available to developers and other third parties to build new services. When life gives you lemons, make simulations and share data.