With the advancements of technology, we now witness cars with self-driving technology, though it has not been completely executed, many companies have designed the same. So, let us know all about autonomous driving or self- driving cars.

What is a car with self-driving technology? 

Also known as an autonomous vehicle, or driverless car, robot car, or robotic car, is a type of car where human drivers are not assigned to operate the vehicle. In short, they are able to sense the surroundings and move safely without the operation of human beings.

How does this technology work?

Technology which makes autonomous driving possible are:-

• IoT Sensors: Self-driving cars use sensors like blind-spot monitoring, forward collision warning, radar, camera, LIDAR, and ultrasonic to integrate together and operate.
• IoT Connectivity: Cloud computing works here. Traffic data, weather, maps, adjacent cars, and surface conditions are the key factors among which helps to monitor the surroundings.
• Software Algorithms: The significant function of the control algorithms and software is to analyze the data collected by the cars. Therefore it is the most complicated part as accordingly, the self-driving car has to make decisions.

What is the need for Autonomous driving cars?

According to a study, it is found that 90% of accidents happen due to the misstep of human beings. However, there are other requirements too for the introduction of self-driving cars. They are:

• Safety: Self-driving cars are of course, cautious than human-driven cars. Facets like driver exhaustion, emotion, or illness cannot affect autonomous driving. He makes them very safe. Characteristics like analytical, relying on cameras, radar, makes it more unique.
•  Environment: There may be less demand for emergency response services. Self-driving cars could be of huge help to the environment. Many self-driving cars, may not use harmful substances like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide.
• Cost-effective: Though cars are costly, in self-driving cars, the cost of licensing, registration fees can be excluded or at least curtailed.

Self-driving Car Technology Stocks

• Tesla: TSLA stock has ascended by 438%. Tesla cars features include traffic-aware-cruise-control and autosteer. As the autonomous vehicle market gains traction globally, Tesla is well established to increase. The company lately lowered costs, which will, of course, upgrade edges. Investors who bullish on self-driving cars can now grab the chance.
• Baidu: Its fundamental priority is on artificial intelligence and autonomous cars. Therefore, it is an indication of growth revival in the coming years. Baidu is now a top-tier autonomous driving company in China, there is immense potential for growth in the coming years. Furthermore, the company has more than 100,000 passenger voyages. In the coming years, Baidu will be at the vanguard.

• Alphabet: Waymo is Alphabet’s self-driving car company. Recently  Waymo pact with Fiat Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover, Renault Nissan Mitsubishi, and Volvo. Additionally, it has made a significance and with that there us expectations of growth in the future.
• Ford: The stock of Ford has decreased by 40%. In addition, Ford has partnered with Argo AI. The company already did testing self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, and Miami. Due to the coronavirus, Ford has sufficient liquidity protection of $35.1 billion. This is vital data for the investors.

Challenges of Self- Driving Cars

Of course, there are pros of self-driving cars but there are some factors which are worth worry about like:

• Weather condition: Imagine there is a layer of snow on the road and the lane dividers vanish. Then, how will the cameras and sensors trace lane markings? Before launching fully self-driven or Level 5 autonomous cars, companies should consider this first.
• Traffic: Autonomous cars should be able to drive in tunnels or on bridges. But what if there is massive traffic? Again this is something worth worrying. Everything should fall in place before launching the cars.
• Accident: Well, here comes the main concern. Who is accountable for accidents inflicted by an autonomous car? According to the blueprints  Level 5 car will not have a dashboard or a steering wheel. Therefore, a human will not even have the alternative to take command of the vehicle in a dilemma.

Conclusion

Technology will keep on upgrading, but before that one should ensure that the new technology does not harm by any means. Other than that self- driving cars are very cool, even if testing is still going on but in the coming years, we are going to witness the same which will be the massive invention of all time for sure.