Do you know the various levels of self-driving cars?
One of the greatest benefits of self-driving cars is undoubtedly the possibility of making our roads safer. After all, the AI in these vehicles prevents mistakes that humans would most likely make. According to data from the Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSA), 94% of serious accidents are caused by human error. That being said, there are 6 levels of autonomous capability ratings for these vehicles, check them out below:
Level 0
The vehicle can be fully controlled by humans. This is the type everyone knows and which represents the majority of the cars ever produced.
Level 1
The system assists the driver with simple functions such as maintaining acceleration, Adaptive Cruise Control, and Lane Keeping Assist. Still, the main actions depend on the driver.
Level 2
Far from being the category of totally self-driving cars we envision for the future, there are the most common vehicles available today. This level allows the car to accelerate, brake, and stay within lanes on its own, and the driver must maintain a higher level of alertness. Examples are the Tesla models that feature Autopilot with a set of autonomous technology features.
Level 3
In this level, the vehicle can also drive itself and drivers must still keep a certain level of alertness, but the vehicles have more advanced sensors, which means they will be able to perform active monitoring and reproduce the surrounding environment for more difficult decision making. An example at this level is the Audi A8, where the driver can take his hands off the wheel at up to 60 km/h. The car also reads license plates.
Level 4
At this level, the driver may even sleep, as the system will take over almost all of his or her functions. If the system identifies an emergency situation that it cannot handle, it may ask the driver to take over. Even in these cases, the vehicle can react to risky situations in case the driver is unable to take control.
Level 5
Level 5 – Full automation – Fully autonomous/self-driving cars can take over all driving functions and still react to danger, even correcting their own mistakes. In this way, the driver becomes just a passenger and can give orders by voice command.
Tesla Autopilot
Audi A8 self-driving hardware
