The automotive industry appears close to substantial change engendered by “self-driving” technologies. This technology offers the possibility of significant benefits to social welfare—saving lives; reducing crashes, congestion, fuel consumption, and pollution; increasing mobility for the disabled; and ultimately improving land use. This report is intended as a guide for state and federal policymakers on the many issues that this technology raises.

Autonomous Vehicles: Technologies, Regulations, and Societal Impacts explores both the autonomous driving concepts and the key hardware and software enablers, Artificial intelligence tools, needed infrastructure, communication protocols, and interaction with non-autonomous vehicles. It analyses the impacts of autonomous driving using a scenario-based approach to quantify the effects on the overall economy and affected sectors. The book assess from a qualitative and quantitative approach, the future of autonomous driving, and the main drivers, challenges, and barriers. The book investigates whether individuals are ready to use advanced automated driving vehicles technology, and to what extent we as a society are prepared to accept highly automated vehicles on the road. Building on the technologies, opportunities, strengths, threats, and weaknesses, Autonomous Vehicles: Technologies, Regulations, and Societal Impacts discusses the needed frameworks for automated vehicles to move inside and around cities. The book concludes with a discussion on what in applications comes next, outlining the future research needs. Broad, interdisciplinary and systematic coverage of the key issues in autonomous driving and vehicles Examines technological impact on society, governance, and the economy as a whole Includes foundational topical coverage, case studies, objectives, and glossary

This book takes a look at fully automated, autonomous vehicles and discusses many open questions: How can autonomous vehicles be integrated into the current transportation system with diverse users and human drivers? Where do automated vehicles fall under current legal frameworks? What risks are associated with automation and how will society respond to these risks? How will the marketplace react to automated vehicles and what changes may be necessary for companies? Experts from Germany and the United States define key societal, engineering, and mobility issues related to the automation of vehicles. They discuss the decisions programmers of automated vehicles must make to enable vehicles to perceive their environment, interact with other road users, and choose actions that may have ethical consequences. The authors further identify expectations and concerns that will form the basis for individual and societal acceptance of autonomous driving. While the safety benefits of such vehicles are tremendous, the authors demonstrate that these benefits will only be achieved if vehicles have an appropriate safety concept at the heart of their design. Realizing the potential of automated vehicles to reorganize traffic and transform mobility of people and goods requires similar care in the design of vehicles and networks. By covering all of these topics, the book aims to provide a current, comprehensive, and scientifically sound treatment of the emerging field of “autonomous driving".

Better public policies can make the road smoother for self-driving vehicles and the society that soon will depend on them. Whether you find the idea of autonomous vehicles to be exciting or frightening, the truth is that they will soon become a significant everyday presence on streets and highways—not just a novel experiment attracting attention or giggles and sparking fears of runaway self-driving cars. The emergence of these vehicles represents a watershed moment in the history of transportation. If properly encouraged, this innovation promises not only to vastly improve road travel and generate huge benefits to travelers and businesses, but to also benefit the entire economy by reducing congestion and virtually eliminating vehicle accidents. The impacts of autonomous vehicles on land use, employment, and public finance are likely to be mixed. But widely assumed negative effects are generally overstated because they ignore plausible adjustments by the public and policymakers that could ameliorate them. This book by two transportation experts argues that policy analysts can play an important and constructive role in identifying and analyzing important policy issues and necessary steps to ease the advent of autonomous vehicles. Among the actions that governments must take are creating a framework for vehicle testing, making appropriate investments in the technology of highway networks to facilitate communication involving autonomous vehicles, and reforming pricing and investment policies to enable operation of autonomous vehicles to be safe and efficient. The authors argue that policymakers at all levels of government must address these and other issues sooner rather than later. Prompt and effective actions outlined in this book are necessary to ensure that autonomous vehicles will be safe and efficient when the public begins to adopt them as replacements for current vehicles.

When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel: the beginning of a new era in personal mobility. “Smart, wide-ranging, [and] nontechnical.” —Los Angeles Times “Anyone who wants to understand what's coming must read this fascinating book.” —Martin Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Robots In the year 2014, Google fired a shot heard all the way to Detroit. Google's newest driverless car had no steering wheel and no brakes. The message was clear: cars of the future will be born fully autonomous, with no human driver needed. In the coming decade, self-driving cars will hit the streets, rearranging established industries and reshaping cities, giving us new choices in where we live and how we work and play. In this book, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman offer readers insight into the risks and benefits of driverless cars and a lucid and engaging explanation of the enabling technology. Recent advances in software and robotics are toppling long-standing technological barriers that for decades have confined self-driving cars to the realm of fantasy. A new kind of artificial intelligence software called deep learning gives cars rapid and accurate visual perception. Human drivers can relax and take their eyes off the road. When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel, driverless cars will offer billions of people all over the world a safer, cleaner, and more convenient mode of transportation. Although the technology is nearly ready, car companies and policy makers may not be. The authors make a compelling case for why government, industry, and consumers need to work together to make the development of driverless cars our society's next “Apollo moment.”

This book is the first technical overview of autonomous vehicles written for a general computing and engineering audience. The authors share their practical experiences of creating autonomous vehicle systems. These systems are complex, consisting of three major subsystems: (1) algorithms for localization, perception, and planning and control; (2) client systems, such as the robotics operating system and hardware platform; and (3) the cloud platform, which includes data storage, simulation, high-definition (HD) mapping, and deep learning model training. The algorithm subsystem extracts meaningful information from sensor raw data to understand its environment and make decisions about its actions. The client subsystem integrates these algorithms to meet real-time and reliability requirements. The cloud platform provides offline computing and storage capabilities for autonomous vehicles. Using the cloud platform, we are able to test new algorithms and update the HD map—plus, train better recognition, tracking, and decision models. This book consists of nine chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of autonomous vehicle systems; Chapter 2 focuses on localization technologies; Chapter 3 discusses traditional techniques used for perception; Chapter 4 discusses deep learning based techniques for perception; Chapter 5 introduces the planning and control sub-system, especially prediction and routing technologies; Chapter 6 focuses on motion planning and feedback control of the planning and control subsystem; Chapter 7 introduces reinforcement learning-based planning and control; Chapter 8 delves into the details of client systems design; and Chapter 9 provides the details of cloud platforms for autonomous driving. This book should be useful to students, researchers, and practitioners alike. Whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student interested in autonomous driving, you will find herein a comprehensive overview of the whole autonomous vehicle technology stack. If you are an autonomous driving practitioner, the many practical techniques introduced in this book will be of interest to you. Researchers will also find plenty of references for an effective, deeper exploration of the various technologies.

This second edition of the successful book - Autonomous Vehicles: Opportunities, Strategies, and Disruptions - updates and expands the first edition published in 2018. It goes into further depth on the market opportunities for autonomous vehicles, adds a global assessment, and includes new insights. Even if you have read the first edition, you need to read the second edition in order to keep up with the fast-paced development of AVs.Autonomous vehicles will change our fundamental lifestyles and create what are perhaps the most significant opportunities of this century. The benefits are unprecedented. The challenges are sizeable but not insurmountable. The strategies are exciting. The disruptions will be substantial.Autonomous Vehicles: Opportunities, Strategies, and Disruptions provides unique insight and perspective on autonomous vehicles.-See how basic lifestyles will be transformed with new inexpensive and more convenient methods of transportation.-Learn about autonomous driving, how it works, and the technologies that make it possible.-Consider the unprecedented benefits that autonomous vehicles will bring.-Understand autonomous ride services and how it will become one of the largest industries ever, but at the same time one of the biggest disruptions.-Comprehend the new markets that autonomous vehicles will create.-Discover the strategies of the major companies competing for these exciting markets.-Anticipate the substantial disruptions that will be created by autonomous vehicles. The book includes projections for these new markets, new economic and business models, and a timetable for the stages of AV adoption. It is a must-read for anyone involved in autonomous vehicles or interested in how they will shape the future.