Daimler to test autonomous driving in California
For the owner of the Mercedes brand, the US is an important market, and the conditions for autonomous driving are very different from Europe. While motoring in Europe – and Daimler’s home country Germany is no exception, despite its dense Autobahn network – commonly takes place on narrow roads whereas the roads in the USA are typically wider and may have more than six or even eight lanes. There are numerous differences in traffic regulations and practical handling between Europe and the US which make it necessary to test research vehicles for automated driving in the United States, said Axel Gern who oversees Daimler’s autonomous driving research activities in North America. A desirable side-effect is certainly the public perception of Daimler participating in the race towards automated driving, a perception currently dominated by a non-automotive player, Google.
Daimler is not the only automotive OEM currently highlighting its capabilities of automated driving. Following General Motor’s recent announcement to make automated driving features in series production available within two years, Japanese carmakers Honda and Toyota have introduced similar features to the public. During the ITS World Congress in Detroit, Honda showcased functions like automated lane changing and automated entering and leaving multi-lane highways. In addition, Honda demoed a system enabling vehicle-to-pedestrian communication between vehicle and a compatible smartphone carried by the pedestrian or cyclist. This system warns drivers as well as pedestrians and cyclists in the case of a collision hazard.
In the meantime, Toyota demonstrated an advanced version of its Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA) driver assistance system. The system utilises a 77GHz radar and a lane control system that processes the images from a front camera to automatically control the steering angle. The two systems control speed and direction, enabling automated driving at speeds up to 113 km/h (70 mph).
But given the intensive discussion among car users about automated driving, will this feature be accepted by the clientele? Market research firm ABI Research provided an impression with its recently published figures. By 2024, driverless vehicle shipments will reach 1.1 million units – not a very impressive figure given the total automotive market of some 86 million units (in 2013). Nevertheless, ABI predicts that the shipment of vehicles with some sort of automated driving features will see an impressive growth – by 2015, the market researcher expects that the shipments will exceed 42 million units, with an installed base reaching 176 million.
But not all flavours of automated driving will be received equally well by car customers. According to ABI practice director Dominique Bonte, autonomous driving under the control of a human driver will quickly gain acceptance while robotic vehicles will mostly remain out of bounds – despite Google’s recent spectacular prototype demonstrations. Bonte attests that there is progress on the technological side, with sensor hardware as well as Artificial Intelligence reaching high maturity levels quickly, but user acceptance, security, and, first of all, regulations remain huge bottlenecks. Driverless vehicles face the biggest hurdles towards adoption. Even in technophile California, Google has been forced by authorities to equip its prototype robot cars with a steering wheel, brake and acceleration pedals firmly in place. Nevertheless, ABI’s Bonte believes that there is a great case for driverless vehicles, and only this type of vehicles will bring the full benefits including car sharing, driverless taxis and delivery vans as well as social mobility for kids, elderly and impaired.
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