Autonomous Boat Control Software Design Using Model-Based Systems Engineering

While there is considerable buzz about self-driving cars, self-driving boats are actually more fully developed. The Boat Hardware Control Platform Team was tasked with developing a fleet of small autonomous boats that travel to a destination while avoiding obstacles and staying in formation. The author’s specific task was to develop software used by the boats to detect obstacles and plan a route to a destination. This was done using a method inspired by self-driving cars, which shows promise, but is still being tested at the time of writing. The entire project incorporated model-based systems engineering, which proved to be useful

Merging self-driving cars with the law

Self-driving cars are gradually being introduced in the United States and in several Member States of the European Union. Policymakers will thus have to make important choices regarding the application of the law. One important aspect relates to the question who should be held liable for the damage caused by such vehicles. Arguably, product liability schemes will gain importance considering that the driver's fault as a cause of damage will become less likely with the increase of autonomous systems. The application of existing product liability legislation, however, is not always straightforward. Without a proper and effective liability framework, other legal or policy initiatives concerning technical and safety matters related to self-driving cars might be in vain. The article illustrates this conclusion by analysing the limitation periods for filing a claim included in the European Union Product Liability Directive, which are inherently incompatible with the concept of autonomous vehicles. On a micro-level, we argue that every aspect of the Directive should be carefully considered in the light of the autonomisation of our society. On the macro-level, we believe that ongoing technological evolutions might be the perfect moment to bring the European Union closer to its citizens. (C) 2018 Jan De Bruyne and Jarich Werbrouck. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

From a Competition for Self-Driving Miniature Cars to a Standardized Experimental Platform: Concept, Models, Architecture, and Evaluation

Context: Competitions for self-driving cars facilitated the development and research in the domain of autonomous vehicles towards potential solutions for the future mobility. Objective: Miniature vehicles can bridge the gap between simulation-based evaluations of algorithms relying on simplified models, and those time-consuming vehicle tests on real-scale proving grounds. Method: This article combines findings from a systematic literature review, an in-depth analysis of results and technical concepts from contestants in a competition for self-driving miniature cars, and experiences of participating in the 2013 competition for self-driving cars. Results: A simulation-based development platform for real-scale vehicles has been adapted to support the development of a self-driving miniature car. Furthermore, a standardized platform was designed and realized to enable research and experiments in the context of future mobility solutions. Conclusion: A clear separation between algorithm conceptualization and validation in a model-based simulation environment enabled efficient and riskless experiments and validation. The design of a reusable, low-cost, and energy-efficient hardware architecture utilizing a standardized software/hardware interface enables experiments, which would otherwise require resources like a large real-scale test track.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figues, 2 table

Splitting the Bill: Creating a National Car Insurance Fund to Pay for Accidents in Autonomous Vehicles

While self-driving cars may seem like something that can exist only in a futuristic movie, the technology is developing rapidly, and many states already allow test runs of self-driving cars on state roads. Many car companies have announced that they will make self-driving cars available as early as 2020. However, several manufacturers of the self- driving car technology predict that personal ownership of vehicles will be replaced by a car-sharing system, where companies own the self-driving cars and rent them to consumers who pay per use. With more widespread introduction of this technology comes many questions about how to assess liability for accidents involving self-driving cars, and how insurance should be structured to pay for those accidents. This Note discusses the potential parties who could be held liable: drivers, car-sharing companies, and manufacturers. This Comment suggests the elimination of liability for any accidents involving self-driving cars, and recommends the creation of a National Insurance Fund to pay for all damages resulting from those accidents

Splitting the Bill: Creating a National Car Insurance Fund to Pay for Accidents in Autonomous Vehicles

While self-driving cars may seem like something that can exist only in a futuristic movie, the technology is developing rapidly, and many states already allow test runs of self-driving cars on state roads. Many car companies have announced that they will make self-driving cars available as early as 2020. However, several manufacturers of the self- driving car technology predict that personal ownership of vehicles will be replaced by a car-sharing system, where companies own the self-driving cars and rent them to consumers who pay per use. With more widespread introduction of this technology comes many questions about how to assess liability for accidents involving self-driving cars, and how insurance should be structured to pay for those accidents. This Note discusses the potential parties who could be held liable: drivers, car-sharing companies, and manufacturers. This Comment suggests the elimination of liability for any accidents involving self-driving cars, and recommends the creation of a National Insurance Fund to pay for all damages resulting from those accidents

Methods for Time to Time Control of Self-Driving Cars: A Review

In this paper, researcher explain different methods used for autonomous cars or self-driving cars are explained such as Lane detection, Path planning, computer vision and Sensors. In India there are lots of road accidents due to human errors. Self-driving cars can reduce the number of road accidents, but the majority of people cannot afford costly cars, so keeping that in mind self-driving car should be made at low cost. Sensors cost less among all other methods discussed in this paper, so in India using Sensor technology for self-driving cars can be the best method

Disruption of Individual Mobility Ahead? A Longitudinal Study of Risk and Benefit Perceptions of Self-Driving Cars on Twitter

In this paper, we address the question if there is a disruption of individual mobility by self-driving cars ahead. In order to answer this question, we take the user perspective and conduct a longitudinal study of social media data about self-driving cars from Twitter. The study analyzes 601,778 tweets from March 2015 to July 2016. We use supervised machine learning classification to extract relevant information from this huge amount of unstructured text. Based on the classification, we analyze how risk and benefit perceptions of self-driving cars develop over time, and how they are influenced by certain events. Based on the perceived risks and benefits, we draw conclusions for the acceptance of self-driving cars. Our study shows that a disruptive innovation of self-driving cars is not likely as risk and benefit perception issues indicate a lack of acceptance. We provide suggestions for improving the acceptance of self-driving cars

Ethical and Social Aspects of Self-Driving Cars

As an envisaged future of transportation, self-driving cars are being discussed from various perspectives, including social, economical, engineering, computer science, design, and ethics. On the one hand, self-driving cars present new engineering problems that are being gradually successfully solved. On the other hand, social and ethical problems are typically being presented in the form of an idealized unsolvable decision-making problem, the so-called trolley problem, which is grossly misleading. We argue that an applied engineering ethical approach for the development of new technology is what is needed; the approach should be applied, meaning that it should focus on the analysis of complex real-world engineering problems. Software plays a crucial role for the control of self-driving cars; therefore, software engineering solutions should seriously handle ethical and social considerations. In this paper we take a closer look at the regulative instruments, standards, design, and implementations of components, systems, and services and we present practical social and ethical challenges that have to be met, as well as novel expectations for software engineering.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 2 table