An autonomous car passed the test in the USA and received a driver’s license: what does this mean for Lithuanian drivers? | Business

Pandemics, geopolitical crises, economic slowdowns and supply chain disruptions have forced the entire transport sector to contend with a never-ending barrage of problems. However, the dream of autonomous cars has not been forgotten, so the quietly developed technology is showing interesting results this year.

The company Hyundai has informed that the robot taxi based on its electric car Ioniq 5 has excelled in the United States of America – it has passed the exam to obtain a driver’s license. The robotic taxi autonomously completed a simulation of the exam process and demonstrated the progress that the South Korean company has made in the development of autonomous vehicle and artificial intelligence technologies.

The Ioniq 5 robot taxi performed exemplary in a series of driving tests on public roads, including heavy traffic in Las Vegas. Manufacturers emphasize that crossing this bar inspires a lot of optimism for further development.

More manufacturers hastened to announce similar goals. Volkswagen also recently revealed plans to test the ID Buzz electric robot taxi. The German electric car will transport passengers in Hamburg, and its activities will be supervised by an on-call driver. Similar plans were made public by Tesla.

Such enthusiasm of manufacturers raises an intriguing question – when will robots take over the services of taxi drivers on the streets of Lithuanian cities?

The basis of security

Automobile and technology reviewer Justas Lengvinas says that, even without evaluating the ability of self-driving vehicles to go from point A to point B independently, there are more important aspects of this knowledge. In particular, with the help of advanced artificial intelligence, robotic cars can become significantly safer than those driven by humans.

“But in this case, we’re talking about software. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the widespread use of autonomous cars, especially in our country, is technical equipment. It is not for nothing that self-driving car tests are mainly conducted in California, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 test is conducted in nearby Las Vegas.

In order for the sensors to feel the environment well and be able to properly assess the situation, there must be clean, clear air. Rain, snow, sleet, spray – all this can be overcome by technology, but we ourselves know very well how difficult it is for us to drive in bad weather. And our eyes and senses are extremely adaptable. Of course, I believe that solutions for this have already been found, and maybe even started to be applied in the industry,” the expert teaches.

According to J. Lengvins, however, you can enjoy the technologies of autonomous cars already now, because they make the mass-produced models that we drive on a daily basis safer.

“At the presentation of one related Ioniq 5 electric car, the emergency braking system had to be tested. It worked as well as possible, reacting, for example, to a pedestrian running into the road or a car suddenly coming from the side. The further the technology of self-driving cars advances in the experimental level or in the very early phase of real use of the product, the better working technologies we, the drivers, get,” the reviewer is convinced.

This aspect was also raised by the South Korean manufacturer after a series of tests. And this is not surprising, because some of the technologies that form the basis of autonomous driving are already used by drivers in current cars. Video cameras, radars and other sensors installed in them enable the operation of adaptive cruise control systems, lane keeping function or emergency braking technology that avoids a collision.

Manufacturers continue to consistently improve these systems, so innovations can be seen in almost every model of the new generation. For example, in the aforementioned Ioniq 5 electric car, the adaptive cruise control system can autonomously bring the car to a complete stop and restart it if the traffic in front does so.

By the way, this Hyundai is the first model of the manufacturer to implement the so-called second-level autonomous driving technology, which allows not only to control the speed and distance to other vehicles on the highways, but also to help change lanes.

Solves the problems of public mobility

Specialists emphasize that the development of autonomous cars is not only a demonstration of future transport possibilities or a solution to security issues. Every day in the world, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities have mobility problems: they have the same travel expectations as any other population. Therefore, a robotic car that does not need to be controlled by a human would help to solve a much wider range of problems.

Hyundai’s experimental model is an example of a wide range of advanced mobility technologies implemented in a single vehicle. It has been developed in close cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group and Motional, a developer of autonomous driving technology. Together, the companies have been developing advanced car platforms and self-driving technologies for years and have conducted numerous tests under harsh conditions.

However, J. Lengvinas is convinced that until the moment when it will be common to see self-driving cars in Lithuania, a lot of water will flow. “However, we will consistently feel that each new car is becoming more intelligent and more protective of us,” notes the interviewer.

His words are illustrated by eloquent facts. Already in the near future in the European Union, and thus in Lithuania, it will be mandatory to install some autonomous driving systems in new cars. And some of them are already necessary – from July 6, 2022, all new mass-produced vehicles sold on the EU market must have the AEBS (Advanced Emergency Braking System) that recognizes another car.

What’s more, a more advanced emergency braking system that detects pedestrians and cyclists will become mandatory in every new car sold in the EU from July 7 this year. However, manufacturers rapidly developing autonomy technologies have already anticipated this.

This system is already used in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Ioniq 6 electric cars. It monitors the road ahead with a radar and a video camera and can stop the car independently if a vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian is running in front of it. In the Hyundai Tucson crossover, this system has an advanced function that helps avoid frontal collisions at intersections when turning left.