THE ROAD TO FULL AUTONOMY

Level 0 – No Automation

Conventional vehicles with no automation features

Level 1 – Driver Assistance

Lowest level of automation, including vehicles that have features to help with steering or braking. Level 1 vehicles have some automated features – adaptive cruise control, for instance.

Level 2 – Partial Automation

Vehicles that have advanced driving assistance systems that can take over steering, acceleration and braking. Level 2 vehicles still require humans to take control.

Level 3 – Conditional Automation

The first stage of automation that has less reliance on a driver to pilot the vehicle. Level 3 automation pairs driver assistance systems with AI to handle more complex situations.

Level 4 – High Automation

Level 4 automated vehicles can drive themselves and are programmed to stop themselves if their systems fail. They are primarily used for services like robotaxis, which are pre-programmed to drive within specific areas.

Level 5 – Full Automation collect fares for robotaxi rides in Chongqing and Wuhan – two of China's largest cities –across 13sq/km in the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone and 30sq/ km in Chongqing's Yongchuan District.

Level 5 vehicles are fully automated with no need for the driver to do anything but set the destination and ride along. They can drive themselves anywhere, under any conditions, safely.

Nevertheless, it’s Alphabet Inc-owned Waymo that has perhaps the greatest experience with real-world conditions, saying on its website that, since 2009, its

“fully self-driving technology” has clocked up 10 million miles on real-world roads.

The company’s Waymo One robotaxi trial in Phoenix, Arizona relies on users utilising Waymo’s app. Recently, however, the company announced a partnership with ride-hailing company Lyft, making ten of its vehicles available outside of Waymo’s own ecosystem.

“Despite initial reservations, driverless vehicles will be a common sight at the end of this decade,” Parker says. “The next phase of motoring cannot be ignored; instead, it must be embraced. The key to this is understanding it and having the best possible innovations at the heart of it.

“With technology providing an environment where we can push the boundaries of what is possible, the future of driving is set to change forever, and the benefits to extend far beyond a pleasant driving experience.”

Real-time data about the environment –weather, road conditions, other vehicles, pedestrians and street signs – combined with information about the vehicle and the intelligence needed to make instant driving decisions, generates up to four terabytes of data per hour for one test vehicle.

“The bottom line is that more connected cars require connected vehicle ecosystems in smart cities to facilitate the shift – with well-crafted edge infrastructures set up to absorb the data deluge,” explains Jordan MacPherson, Director, Product Operations, Park Place Technologies.

According to a report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, another major challenge alongside social acceptance, safety and regulatory restrictions that is often overlooked is the monumental impact these vehicles will have on the data centre market.

According to research by Strategic Market Research, the worldwide Autonomous Car Market's value in 2021 was worth US$25.14bn and, by 2030, will reach US$196.97bn at a 25.7% CAGR. North America came out on top of the overall market, with the highest market share of about 45% in 2021.

“Self-driving vehicles are expected to generate unthinkable amounts of data that will have a profound impact on the markets for data centre storage and computation,” said Jeff Johnston, lead communications economist with CoBank. “And there’s an enormous chasm between the existing digital infrastructure and what is needed to support widespread adoption of self-driving vehicles.”

“Governments are already working to build the necessary ecosystems and prepare citizens for the changes ahead,” concludes MacPherson. “In the UK, for example, the first autonomous bus scheme is rolling out and the government has just updated the highway code in preparation for autonomous vehicles. It is the back-end data infrastructure that forms the foundations for these technologies – with autonomous vehicles producing 300TB a year, optimised data management is mission critical.”

“Building networks and ecosystems that can handle this data – as much as 40TB of data an hour from cameras, radar, and other sensors from driverless cars – will determine the success, the safety, and the experience of autonomous driving.”