SPECIAL FOCUS
* Intelligent Cars •
Yet deep learning software has proven to be the long-awaited missing link in the evolution of artificial life. A deep learning network can be trained to spot objects that are commonly found by the side of the road, such as bicycles, pedestrians and construction sites. This is why Google’s autonomous vehicles continue to prowl the streets, gathering data to build a giant motherlode of driving experiences. Once a deep learning network classifies what’s near the vehicle, it hands off that insight to the car’s operating system. The operating system—a suite of different types of onboard software modules—learns to react appropriately to a wide variety of driving situations until the driverless vehicle attains human-level artificial perception and reflexes.
Artificial Senses and Reflexes Meanwhile, while AI research was revitalized by abundant data and cheap computing power, a parallel revolution was taking place in the onboard hardware devices that serve as a vehicle’s artificial eyes, ears, hands, and feet. Driverless cars track their
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• mechanixillustrated.co • Fall 2017
• Google’s auton-
omous vehicles continue to prowl the streets, gathering data to build a giant motherlode of driving experiences.