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Autonomous Vehicles a Way to Future : A Qualitative Report on the Significance
Challenges, and Ethical Concerns
Abdul Basit
Muhammad Usama Ejaz
Muhammad Ibrahim Khan
Department of Electrical Engineering, NUST CEME
Feb. 20, 2021
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Abstract
Automation technologies are bringing revolutionary changes in the world. The field of autonomous
driving has the potential of reshaping the entire transportation system. Reliable autonomous urban
driving is an innovative technology which will enable improved vehicle safety, driver assistance,
and other field robotic applications. Self-Driving Cars are poised for accelerated adoption, with
potential benefits such as better overall traffic management and environmental sustainability. The
objective of this research is to identify the cornerstone for advanced research in this cutting-edge
technology, and link the significance of this field with the societal impact in a fathomable manner.
Our research study is centered across gathering opinion of people, to analyze if they perceive self-
driving cars are a way to future. Our study also focuses on factors which could create a bridgehead
for futuristic development of such vehicles in Pakistan, ultimately leading to self-reliance in this
field. The research aims at conceptualizing autonomous driving technologies in Pakistan to bring
this sector of state of art research at par with the rest of the world. Forecasting the way that a new
technology will unfold is always a challenge. However, given the huge benefits arising from AVs,
they appear all set to dominate roads in the coming decades, which raises the question of laws
pertaining to safe mobility and human-machine interaction. According to our surveys, people are
increasingly concerned about their lives and safety, and dependence on such a technology until it
is perfected is a liability. Moreover, self-driving cars will heavily influence the job market creating
avenues for automation and control engineers and AI experts, significantly impacting the society.
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Significance of Study
The research is aimed at feasibility study and acquisition of survey data to accurately estimate the
potential benefits of autonomous vehicles and technology. Our study showcases the paramount
requirements for the self-driving cars to be the norm of the future. The rapidly evolving field of
self-driving cars is accompanied by a journey of developments, breakthroughs, and challenges.
There are profound benefits that could arise from a driverless future including safety and
environmental incentives, which has led to the pursuance of this idea by many leading automobile
research and development groups around the world. It was the source of inspiration for this study
to investigate why self-driving cars have such a tremendous hype associated with them, and to
understand the essence of its requirement in the modern era. We collected and analyzed test data
from people ranging from different engineering disciplines, and invited them to attend a session
dedicated to educating them for Autonomous Electric Vehicles. The session was conducted on 6th
February and was aimed at nurturing the minds of individuals about the various concepts of
Autonomous Vehicles to enable them to truly understand and appreciate their significance. We
conducted a question & answer session at the end of presentation where we addressed the
intriguing questions of individuals to clear their confusions and incite the curiosity for the future
that awaits us. We undertook a unique approach to empower our research to first educate the people
and then inquire their opinions about the technology, which highlights the significance of our
study. We also wanted to address the problem of trust and ethical issues concerning Self-Driving
cars and inquired the challenges faced and if this technology has the capability to dominate the
future. Our results were unbiased by any means and covered a wide range of spectrum of people
from not only our institute but other engineering universities invited from the platform of
NUSTAG, which signifies the credibility of our research data and study.
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Research questions
Some of the critical contemporary research issues in efficient and safe autonomous urban driving
is the act of decision making and how they cope with extreme scenarios, and the assurance that
Artificial Intelligence poses no threat to humans and other living creatures alike. The modern Era
has witnessed a drift towards reliance on technology with frequent use of smart phones and AI
based applications which is sign of modern civilization accepting the technology of self-driving
cars eventually. The research questions are designed to evaluate the current mindset and yield
suitable information for our research topic. We ensured that the questions were interactive and
engaging so that the survey respondents choose to complete the survey, and engaged themselves
in an extensive thinking process, enabling them to acknowledge their mindset on this technology,
and simultaneously aiding our research significantly. We received some intruding responses to the
open ended questions which highlights how people have an inherently competent mindset to tackle
some of the most challenging questions for Autonomous Industry to date. Our survey consisted of
12 questions, all designed to access the general opinion about Autonomous Vehicles for their
incentives and safety concerns and the research questions are listed below:
1.
2.
3.
5
4.
5.
6
6.
7.
8.
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11.
12.
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Objectives
The autonomous vehicle has received great attention during the past decade and prototype versions
have been developed by different vendors. However, the commercial realization of autonomous
vehicles remains a significant challenge. Technological advancements are continuously changing
the human life. Like many other developments, autonomous vehicle system is attracting public
interest and being widely discussed by all the stakeholders. The objectives of our research is to
conduct a feasibility study in order to provide a stepping stone to counter the challenges faced by
the industry, and perform critical analysis of our research data to propose solutions. The specific
scope and objectives of our research are listed below:
1. At this cusp of a transport revolution, identify the essential requirements, significance, and
challenges faced by the introduction of this innovative technology.
2. Development of ways to analyze how the autonomous vehicles will impact the society and
relate to the general acceptance by people and other industries alike.
3. Highlight the existing challenges, and evaluate the human-machine interaction and propose
guidelines which may help in drafting laws of governance.
4. Undertake research in Artificial Intelligence and methods of Perception to address state of
the art issues pertaining to Self-Driving Cars.
5. Develop a benchmark result and analysis, which will facilitate subsequent research in this
area for both academia and automobile industry.
6. Identify the current industrial standard for level of autonomy and associate them to public
health and safety standards, to enable the research to have far reaching implications.
7. Conduct survey to inquire public opinion about autonomous vehicles becoming the norm
of the future, and expected year according to their understanding and optimism.
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Introduction
Autonomous vehicles have been in the spotlight for the last few years initiating a trend among
investors to focus their attention to the innovative technology in order to reshape the future.
Autonomous Vehicles promise a life which many had previously only dreamt of or watched in
movies has now taken a step towards becoming the reality. The deus-ex machina which existed as
a taunt to humanity of being unable to completely depend on a singular source of energy or ether
as they call it was realized through electricity and this single idea, this single innovation became
the coup de grace which would convince our years of research to go into integrating this ether into
all of our industries. Over the years, radical transformation has been frowned upon by both the
actors on the stage and the critics within the audience, their reviews were detrimental in deciding
how the play needed improvement in terms of eliminating plot-holes, how these actors will either
perform in the next play or if this is the last time the curtains are drawn. The play in consideration
now is Autonomous Vehicles, their influence and their impact on society; the trend in converting
from regular fuel-based vehicles to semi-autonomous surged in the year 2020. However, the issues
pertaining to the “social acceptance” of such a notion, a notion where your life’s safety and security
is now, willingly, undertaken by an artificial intelligence which surpasses humans by a mile.
This research work is dedicated to exploring the public perception of autonomous vehicles and
analyzing their viewpoint on factors of awareness, reliability, safety, convenience and comfort of
the autonomous vehicle. The significance of Self-Driving Cars cannot be overemphasized. In
addition, the gained expertise is expected to establish new avenues of Autonomous Vehicle
Research, including off-road autonomous vehicle. Such vehicles have widespread application in
Service and Field Robotics. Road accidents cost a human life around the world every 22 seconds;
the primary purpose of automating cars is to eventually eliminate road accidents. Related benefits
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include eradication of driver fatigue, especially on highways and for passenger and logistics
transport.
Literature Review
Removing a driver from behind the wheel takes away more than just the physical responses. It also
eliminates the complex decision-making that goes into even routine journeys – choosing whether
to swerve into a neighboring lane to avoid a possible obstacle or navigating ambiguous
intersections. The implications of Self-Driving cars are vast and these are covered in the topic
below with associated headings for each concept.
Innovation
Autonomous Electric Vehicles and driving methods are highly researched and being actively
developed across the globe. R&D [1] in this area in Pakistan allows an entry and encouragement
of advanced technologies in the country and therefore allows for future contribution in the
development and innovation in autonomous driving technologies. The secondary purpose is
optimal traffic management. [2] With increase in population, and congestion of urban centers,
autonomous vehicles working on optimal trajectory planning algorithms will play their part in
optimal traffic management.
Safer driving
According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die in road crashes and another
20 – 50 million people face fatal injuries due to road traffic incidents each year. Folsom (2011)
carried out a comparison of accident rates of motor vehicles to those of autonomous vehicle
(commuter rail) [3]. 90 percent of these fatalities are due to unsafe human driving (Autonomous
Car Research at Stanford) [4]. Human driving is prone to error and driving under conditions such
as mental stress and fatigue, influence of substances and speeding make accidents more common.
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Autonomous driving replaces the error-bound human control of the drive with a set of trained
algorithms which are less likely to make errors. Therefore, autonomous driving directly provide
safety to the drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.
Traffic management
Traffic congestion and time delays are caused by inefficient human driving. These instances lead
to rising levels of anxiety and stress in human beings and brings about other inconveniences.
Autonomous driving techniques allow for better traffic management by reducing stop-and-go
driving, understanding, and adapting to surrounding drivers. This reduces traffic congestion, saves
time, and even reduces number of vehicles in use on road.
Clean and efficient driving
Autonomous driving is an efficient solution to reducing carbon footprint [5] (ambition of UN and
a significant Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 11) by the transportation industry as it reduces
the amount of traffic on road and implements energy-efficient driving decisions (reduces
accelerations). Moreover, as Autonomous Electric Vehicle do not use engines, carbon emissions
are directly reduced. Thereby reducing pollution and not adding into the greenhouse gases
emissions.
Commonalities in Beliefs:
Over the last century, the impact of the human driven automobile cannot be overstated.
However, car usage is likely to change dramatically in the next century due to the arrival of self-
driving cars. The introduction of which is likely to have an equally large impact. The move from
human driven to autonomous cars is likely to have a momentous impact on our lives and society.
As well as the convenience and safety incentives for travelers, they will create benefits for society
and the environment making the adoption of this technology inevitable. This would also mean a
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move away from fossil fuel transport to a less polluting form of energy with fewer carbon
emissions – reducing the effect on global warming. Autonomous Vehicles have far-reaching
economic and technological impact of autonomous vehicles that could generate large revenue.
Even if automated vehicles only succeeded in eliminating the accidents that are caused by driver
behavior and error, the number would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year that could
be saved within Pakistan. Improved efficiency in the use of roadways translates into increased
roadway capacity. Moreover, local businesses could take advantage of location-based services and
major industries could benefit from the advent of this technology.
Contradicting Beliefs:
Despite the promise in this domain, levels of autonomy the progress thus far is restrictive and is
unable to match the optimism expressed by leading automotive brands like Volvo, Toyota, BMW,
Hyundai etc. Most of the Self Driving Cars have been driving at smaller scales on well-structured
roads (with markings and consistent width), in constrained communities and at slow speeds. R.
Hussain at. el. [6] also discussed the economic implications in their work which highlights that
autonomous vehicles may be an economically infeasible option for roads for the future,
considering humans will not stop driving and the human aggressive actions can be a means of
unpredictable scenarios and could eventually lead to economic crisis if Autonomous Vehicles are
face hazards, since the cost per unit is tremendously high. Yet a similar study by R. Hussain at. el.
[7] there have been accidents and the vision of total autonomy with no intervention of human
drivers is far from reality. Naturally, it is difficult for a traditional driver to trust that car will apply
the brakes when required in the case of accident. It might take years to convince the society to trust
driverless car operating in rush hours traffic. This aspect is a major indicator of the research and
development potential in this area. The development of Self Driving Cars has significant ethical
issues associated with it worldwide. These pertain to the critical decisions in emergency situations.
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A major issue is would the vehicle save the driver or the pedestrian if one of the two choices must
be made. The issue is of legislative nature and will become critical when fully autonomous vehicle
with no provision of human intervention travel on the roads. In the context of the proposed research
by T. Litman [10], the envisioned prototype will have a human driver as a supervision with the
authority of superposition of vehicle control in case emergency situation occurs, and consequently
there is no ethical issue. The external risks associated with the safety of driver are the time budget
available to intervene for avoiding the accident. As this continuum of criticality and temporal
pressure is traversed, so the legal and ethical issues to be resolved become more complex. Thus,
solving the problem of risk communication to the driver is not merely a technical challenge but
also requires wider societal input both in terms of legal regime and a more holistic acceptance
from the ethical perspective.
Future Prospects:
Forecasting the way that a new technology will unfold is always a challenge. However, given
the huge benefits arising from AVs, they appear all set to dominate roads in the coming decades.
The developments in the mobility sector will also influence the job market. According to the
surveys conducted by Sanaullah I. et. al. [8], more automation and control engineers and AI experts
will be required in the automotive industry and at mobility service providers. The proposed future
of driverless technology is expected to influence local job market in Pakistan which will eventually
lead to increase in employment rate in the country. The provision of an adequate liability regime
for ADAS technologies is an essential prerequisite for its roll out over the coming decade. Facing
to the challenge of future highly automated vehicles. The survey by Schoettle at. el. [9] was also
showed hope for an autonomous future, and discussed the introduction of advanced driving aid
systems in modern vehicles fundamentally changing the risk balance of the driving task. On one
hand, ADAS actively contribute to increase road safety, but on the other, new types of risk also
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emerge. The issues that arise are interrogated from a legal perspective, more specifically liability
regimes and that of applied ethics with the aim to progress towards the sustainable deployment of
automated vehicles on public roads. The works of Wu at. el. [11] was also an aspiring resource for
researchers and people awaiting this technology alike.
Methodology
The methodology of our research brings to the spotlight the perception of autonomous vehicles by
observing how the general public acts as the judge, jury and executioner. As an keen observer, a
scientist and passing conclusions as such, it is necessary to be impartial to our own emotional
stance on the subject; for making sure of this, we distributed a questionnaire in which we asked
the opinions of the general public, mainly targeting university students especially those who are
enrolled in engineering degrees seeing as how they are the pioneers of the future, regarding
autonomous vehicles and their societal impact. The reason of targeting students in engineering
students is because they are at the forefront of research into this area and are pivotal in deciding
its progress and uncertain future irrespective of their specializations however this industry greatly
involves individuals specializing in the fields of computer science, electrical and mechanical
engineering. In order to make this questionnaire easier to comprehend so that even a layman who
has no prior knowledge of this paradigm shift comes across this cross-road of deciding what this
historian writes, pictorial presentations were included where necessary. The questions ranged from
their existing knowledge of autonomous vehicles, their trend and the country which they believe
is fighting at the frontlines to ensure their vision of this future is realized in their home. Next, we
suggested the data collected from similar survey previously conducted by the students at Stanford
University; the survey was about how vehicular accidents which occurred in the past were linked
to human errors. We also presented the prospects of autonomous vehicles, of how they believe
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this revolution would benefit the general public in terms of service and security and also about
their version of the future envisioned for this it, their opinions were ranked on a scale of 1 being
absolutely against the idea to 5 being absolutely in favor of it. Security is always an issue when it
comes to trusting man but here, we are being asked to entrust our way of living to a man-made
non-living and yet living creation. We asked them exactly to what extent they consider integrating
autonomy into their lifestyle would be adequate. Autonomous vehicles not only affect the public
in terms of security and changing their lifestyle but also affects individuals who are directly
dependent on the present fuel-based vehicular industry especially professional drivers. Previously,
a statistic of a survey was suggested of how most vehicular accidents were caused by humans so
now we asked, if in their opinion, would a human driver be considered to take responsibility of a
vehicle and their lives or would they rather choose the mirror reflection of one to do this job for
them; in order to place increased emphasis on this, we suggested if they would choose the autopilot
system designed by TESLA, the fifth major player of this industry and if they trust it. We also
asked if they would choose an economical alternate of using the perspective of a camera’s eye for
seeing which humans would normally do or if they are inclined towards using an expensive yet
more reliable LIDAR technology for this job which, unlike humans, has a field of view like that
of a radar. Lastly, we presented them the famous scenario that if a self-driving car was faced a
group of people crossing the road in one lane and a wall in the other, would they rather take the
leap of faith and continue on its path, hoping that the crowd would remove itself from the vehicle’s
path keeping in mind the safety of the passengers or would it switch lanes, regardless of what lies
on the end of the road ahead and let the fate decide the outcome of running head first into a wall.
This wall of decision also included a third alternative which was left upon the observer to decide
on. The data collected was mostly analyzed in terms of their incline towards a particular idea or
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scenario which was either based on that individuals own research which include but are not limited
to television coverage, newspaper advertisements of this industry, online blogs or articles written
by well-renowned researchers or by the history of this industry and how they believe that this time,
change is not what we desire and we would rather stick with the beaten road rather than go down
the one that has merely been contemplated and dreamt of. Our Analysis was also based on previous
works done in the field of Autonomous Research and we reviewed several blogs and online
resources to gather sufficient data to support our research topic.
Analysis
In order to get more reasonable opinion on the aforementioned factors, mostly people from the
technical background, currently enrolled in the engineering disciplines were targeted and the
results were analyzed. Among the several Questions, the question of highest significance was their
general opinion on autonomous technology which underpins their reliance and acceptance on the
autonomous technology. This was most favorably answered by the students and it lead to the
conviction that most of them wanted to perceive a future with autonomous vehicles.
Figure 1. Questionaire Answer (Q1)
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The next two questions targeted their sense of optimism and realism, while predicting an open
estimate, there were varying results but most people predicted the autonomous vehicles to be
introduced within this century and some even suggested them to be introduced within this decade.
There was one interesting observation which highlights the fact that all believe that autonomous
vehicles will be introduced initially in developing countries and years later will be a norm in
developing countries, which seems adequate, since a similar trend has been experienced with other
forms of technology.
Figure 2. Questionaire Answer (Q2)
Figure 3. Questionaire Answer (Q3)
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The next question inquired about how significantly human error can be eliminated with
introduction of Self-Driving cars, and mostly people are optimistic that the technology will bring
revolutionary results for the society and improve road safety conditions. This finding is tested in
the next question to inquire respondents if they perceive all the optimistic and revolutionary
changes visible with advent of AVs, and most of the people responded in favor of it. This highlights
a significant breakthrough is to be expected in travelling routines, when this technology becomes
a part of future, and it will lead to all the incentives, and environmental sustainability.
Figure 4. Questionaire Answer (Q4)
Figure 5. Questionaire Answer (Q5)
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The SAE levels of Autonomy [12] are measure of how intelligent the vehicle is and how robustly
it can maneuver any unexpected circumstances. The level 5 of autonomy can be named as “Perfect
Automation”, where the driver is no longer in a driving seat whereas facing in the passenger seat.
Majority of the people think this seemingly impossible task yet has a possibility of occurrence.
There is overall a neutral response to this question, with a few people against the ideology as well.
Figure 6. Questionaire Answer (Q6)
The next question was of significant importance of the Human-Machine trust. It is similar to
blindly trusting your life to a machine, which on any occasion could perform worse than humans.
That is why most people think that a threshold of level 3 is adequate for their safety, and even
some people voted to only trust the self-driving car when the automation capabilities are perfected,
which is at SAE level 5 autonomy.
Figure 7. Questionaire Answer (Q7)
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This was a rather interesting question also accommodating the economics and having a complete
sense of realism involved. If AVs are too much expensive then, would it be a better option to hire
a driver. But instead most people were curiously waiting for a driver-less future so considering
economic stand point, the significance and hype of an autonomous vehicle still outweighs all other
factors, and people were in favor of autonomous vehicles.
Figure 8. Questionaire Answer (Q8)
Regarding the next question, most of the people were neutral, while some were even against the
thought of trusting a machine in an unstructured road environment with no lane lines. This
highlights the fact that even giant organizations have a long way to go before they make their
technology usable in every environment.
Figure 9. Questionaire Answer (Q9)
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This question is of significant importance as the lead Automotive Industry Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk
according to his quote, regarded LIDAR as a fool’s errand. LIDAR being the most accurate sensor
yet more expensive is not an option for Tesla, and people were also in favor of his ideology since
he aims for a future where driver-less vehicles will be in the reach of all people rather than just a
commodity for elite.
Figure 10. Questionaire Answer (Q 10)
Perception is the lynchpin for the success of the Self Driving Car will be its ability to Perceive and
comprehend the environment around it, in its entirety. There are two method of perception
categorized as LIDAR based and Camera based, and 62% of our respondents advised both to be
installed for their adequate safety, while only 13% considered cameras as sufficient.
Figure 11. Questionaire Answer (Q 11)
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The last question of the survey was the representation of the most intriguing and challenging
problem faced by the autonomous engineers. It falls in the regime of ethical issues concerned with
Autonomous Vehicles making this trolley problem an obstruction to the path of complete trust and
reliance on AVs. The laws could be exercised to find best possible solutions to this problem, while
our research group all had interesting and applicable ideas for this problem, which signifies the
competency of the targeted group.
Figure 12. Questionaire Answer (Q 12)
Analysis of Similar Studies in the Field of Autonomous Research:
Trend and opinion of Locals: Ford Motor Company also stated that it aims to start mass
production of driverless vehicles by 2021. Other tech and motor companies like Tesla, Uber,
BMW, Toyota, GM, Volvo, and Nissan are all part of the race to see fully driverless vehicles on
the road in just a few short years from now. According to the major auto manufacturers mentioned
above, in a few years, human driving will only be found in history books [13]. According to a
report called Autonomous Vehicle Outlook, by Allied Market Research, the global autonomous
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vehicle market is projected to reach $556.67 billion by 2026 with annual growth of 39.4 percent
from 2019 to 2026 [14].
Figure 13. Autonomous driverless-cars market potential estimation
Figure 14. Autonomous cars market, growth rate by region, 2021 - 2026
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Country at the forefront: Some governments are already starting to prepare for the future. In
2017, the British government announced that they plan on having fully autonomous vehicles on
the roads by 2021 whereas North America is dominating the market. Self-driving cars have already
been tested and used in the roads of California, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Michigan, and other
states of the United States. Although, their mobility is restricted to specific test areas and driving
conditions. Various technology companies in the country are reaching new milestones in terms of
total miles tested. For instance, in 2020, Cruise LLC completed 2020 by doubling its figure of how
far its cars can go before a safety driver needs to take over. The company reported 27
disengagements during 770,000 miles during testing in California. During testing in 2020, the
human driver had to take over every 28,520 miles, as compared to every 12,221 miles last year.
Similarly, Apple Inc. completed road testing of its self-driving cars in 2020, which experienced
more than double miles traveled as compared to 2019 as its autonomous technology improved.
The company’s cars drove 18,805 miles in 2020, as compared to 7,544 miles in 2019, according
to a report of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. After various local companies, the
country is witnessing the entry of companies from various other countries. For instance, in
February 2021, Vietnam's domestic automaker, Vinfast, announced that it had obtained a permit
to test autonomous vehicles on public streets in California. The company was seeking this permit
to commercialize its electric vehicles in the United States market. Canada was a lagging in terms
of the autonomous-vehicle testing in North America. The University of Waterloo joined forces
with Erwin Hymer Group and Blackberry QNX to start testing driverless cars and vans in
November 2016.
Man verses Machine: In 2016, the Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics states that
906 drivers, 207 motorcyclists, 358 passengers, 334 pedestrians, and 42 bicyclists were involved
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in driving fatalities. In 2017, the total number of motor vehicle-related fatalities in Canada was
1,841. It’s predicted that fully autonomous vehicles will reduce the occurrence of road crashes and
accidents due to driver errors caused by alcohol, drugs, speeding, aggression, inexperience,
distraction, and poor road conditions.
Problems with self-driving Cars: In March 2018, a self-driving vehicle manufactured by Uber
fatally struck a pedestrian in Arizona. This accident made many people question the safety of
driverless vehicles. Fully autonomous vehicles are prone to misreading bumps in the road, struggle
operating under certain weather conditions, and have trouble understanding their relationship with
bicyclists and pedestrians. Self-driving vehicles have not yet established strong
intercommunication with other vehicles or have figured out how to transmit information in areas
with poor reception. Another problem is privacy and data security. Driverless vehicles work by
sharing information with servers and other vehicles. The security of our personal information is at
threat, and our AI-enabled cars are vulnerable to hacking by cybercriminals.
SAE levels of autonomy: Although, Level 4 and Level 5 (as scaled by SAE) autonomous cars are
unlikely to reach wide acceptance, by 2030, there would be rapid growth for Level 2 and Level 3
autonomous cars, which have advanced driver assistance systems, like collision detection, lane
departure warning, and adaptive cruise control. Fully autonomous cars are not going to reach a
wide customer base unless they are secure from cyber-attacks. If such concerns are addressed, the
autonomous car market is estimated to reach USD 60 billion by 2030.
LIDAR technologies will propel the growth of the market: LIDAR and cameras are the
principal components of the autonomous vehicles, that differentiate it from conventional vehicles,
in which LIDAR acts as an eye of the self-driving vehicles as it provides them a 360-degree view
of the surrounding which help vehicle to drive on its own safety. Various companies [15] that
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manufacture this component are entering into partnerships with other companies and entering into
a new market. For instance, in February 2021, Velodyne LIDAR announced that it has signed a
five-year sales agreement with ThorDrive to provide Ultra Puck sensors. ThorDrive is using
Velodyne’s LIDAR sensors to power its cargo ground support tractors in an autonomous vehicle
program at the Northern Kentucky International Airport. ThorDrive has been using Velodyne
LIDAR sensors since 2010 for developing its autonomous driving technology. In January 2021,
Innoviz Technologies entered into a partnership with Macnica, to sell InnovizOne, in Japan.
InnovizOne is an automotive-grade, LiDAR sensor, apart from that company also has other
products in its portfolio like InnovizTwo, a high-performance automotive-grade LiDAR sensor,
and Innoviz's perception software, with advanced AI and machine learning-based detection and
tracking features. In 2018, InnovizOne has been selected by BMW for its fully electric autonomous
car program.
Findings/discussion
Most of the respondents were familiar with the autonomous vehicles since initially they had been
briefed about the topic of discussion and the results also show a similar trend. As the respondents
in this study were well educated and mostly (65 % part of NUSTAG Autonomous) with the
technical background of study, therefore it was expected they would be aware about the self-
driving vehicles. The people in general were optimistic about the technology and some even trusted
it in the current state and Beta testing modes. The impact of Autonomous Vehicle is significant
and all the countries are hopeful to achieve mastery in this field. This study was a fascinating result
of dedication to the field of Autonomous Vehicles, and the research group being involved with
manufacturing the first Autonomous Electric Vehicle of Pakistan; we were confident to conduct a
large scale briefing session to educate and further empower the youth to pursue this field in their
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careers. The session concluded with a very interactive questions and answers session where the
audience shared their thoughts enthusiastically. Conclusively, the seminar was an effective tool to
create awareness and concern among the upcoming generation who have the power to change the
Environment using tech.
Conclusion
Autonomous Vehicles will be a part of the future, and there is evidence of its tremendous success
and evolution over the past years which is highlighted in our research group as well. Majority is
convinced about the benefits like increase in comfort, safety, convenience and reduction in delays
and fatigue. However, training about the use of such system has been taken as the necessary. In
this report we conducted a qualitative study to analyze the mindset of aspiring engineers, with an
aim to enable the youth to take meaningful actions to a desirable future by inculcating in them
sufficient knowledge for innovative technologies. Our research successfully concluded that the
uprising of Autonomous Vehicles based on Artificial Intelligence poses no threat to humans,
instead they are an efficient tool to increase their safety. The following of traffic rules will still be
a consideration - while government should emphasize on creating laws for autonomous vehicles,
they should also promote the research in the field to see the glimpse of futuristic technology in the
near future.
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Appendix
[1] Link to presentation for the Autonomous Vehicle Session (This presentation along with all of the
graphics elements are made by the team members): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-
N7Z7M3ayscXeElMSsYVl9iXQJhHCHAx/view?usp=sharing
Figure 15. Autonomous Electric Vehicles Briefing Session Poster
