A number of today’s new motor vehicles have technology that helps drivers avoid drifting into adjacent lanes or making unsafe lane changes, or that warns drivers of other vehicles behind them when they are backing up, or that brakes automatically if a vehicle ahead of them stops or slows suddenly, among other things. These and other safety technologies use a combination of hardware (sensors, cameras, and radar) and software to help vehicles identify certain safety risks so they can warn the driver to act to avoid a crash.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) provide feedback to a human driver and/or assist the driver in performing steering, braking, or acceleration functions in order to increase the safety of those in and around the vehicle. ADAS systems span a wide range of functionality in varying degrees of complexity and are paving the way to fully autonomous vehicles.

The world of autonomous driving doesn’t consist of only one single dimension. From no automation whatsoever to a complete autonomous experience, driving can be enhanced by several levels of technology advantages. By allowing technology into the driver seat, the automotive industry is making a bid to reduce accidents on the road, increase driver comfort and powertrain efficiency.

Levels of Autonomous driving

To set agreed-upon standards early in the transition to autonomous vehicles, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) developed a classification system that defines the degree of driving automation a car and its equipment may offer. Ranging from levels zero to five, the driving automation spectrum begins with vehicles without this technology and ends with entirely self-driving vehicles.

As vehicles increasingly assume functions previously managed by the driver, each level of automation necessitates more layers of sensors. A Level 1 vehicle, for example, might just have one radar and one camera. A Level 5 vehicle, which must be able to travel through any environment, will require full 360-degree sensing from numerous sensor types.

According to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), there are six different levels of driving autonomy that make a complete driving experience:

Level 0: No automation

Level 0 relies entirely on the driver to execute all longitudinal and lateral functions, such as acceleration and steering, as the name implies. The act of driving is completely under the control of – and responsibility for – the driver.

Despite the lack of automation, the system will issue certain warnings. These could include lane departure or forward-collision alerts, for example. They are still classified as Level 0 because they simply provide information to the driver through alerts and notifications.

Level 1: driver assistance

The vehicle only controls or intervenes at this level to control the vehicle’s speed or steering, but not both at the same time. While the driver cannot give up control of the vehicle, Level 1 technology can assist with some driving tasks.

Adaptive cruise control is an example of an ADAS function in which the automobile maintains a set speed and safe distance from the car ahead by automatically applying the brakes when traffic slows and returning to its normal speed when traffic clears. Another example is lane keep assist, which returns the vehicle to the center of the lane if it veers off slightly without activating the turn signal.

Level 2: Partial driving automation

As you go to Level 2, the vehicle and the driver share the driving work. The two basic driving functions of lateral and longitudinal control are frequently taken over by the vehicle. This can be accomplished by integrating adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping, for example. In this instance, the driver is permitted to remove their hands off the steering wheel for a brief period of time. However, the driver must maintain constant situational awareness and keep an eye on the surroundings.

GM’s Super Cruise, Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot, Tesla Autopilot, Volvo’s Pilot Assist, and Nissan ProPilot Assist 2.0 are some of the most renowned examples of carmakers employing Level 2 automation.

A new trend in the automotive industry is Level 2+ systems, which exceed the functionality you would typically find in a Level 2 model. The main difference between the two is a higher degree of automation when maneuvering to enter or exit a highway, change a lane or merge onto one. Taking the example of changing lanes, a Level 2 system would simply stay in the same lane, even when driving behind a very slow vehicle that it is allowed to overtake.

Level 3: Conditional driving automation

At Level 3, the vehicle can accelerate past a slow-moving vehicle, monitoring its surroundings, changing lanes, and controlling the steering, throttle, and braking. All the driver has to do is keep paying attention and be ready to take back control when the vehicle calls for it.

Level 3 automation allows you to take your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road as long as you remain alert. The result is a relaxed driver on certain occasions, like when driving in traffic jams. Most car manufacturers allow such a traffic jam pilot function to operate only on specific controlled-access highways and operate when traffic is relatively slow – below 40 miles per hour.

Level 4: High driving automation

As the vehicle’s capabilities develop, the interaction between humans and machines decreases at Level 4. Changing lanes, turning, and signaling, as well as the steering, stopping, accelerating, and monitoring the environment, are all taken away from the driver.

The vehicle is capable of handling highly complicated driving scenarios without the need for human interaction, such as the rapid emergence of work sites. This is now only permitted in limited, designated conditions, such as on controlled-access highways.

However, a human can still override the system manually. For the driver, this means she may sit back and relax, possibly even read a book, while the car drives responsibly and safely on the highway and possibly even city streets. The car can still ask the driver to take control, but if no response is received, the car will come to a safe stop on its own. The Waymo test car is an example of Level 4 autonomy.

Level 5: Full driving automation

Now we’re getting to the exciting stuff: self-driving cars. Level 5 autonomy involves no human intervention. There is no need for a steering wheel, brakes, or pedals in this vehicle. All driving tasks, including environmental monitoring and detection of complicated driving conditions such as busy pedestrian crossings, are controlled by the autonomous vehicle under all conditions.

This also means that the vehicle can do numerous tasks at once, such as adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, emergency braking, pedestrian detection, collision avoidance, cross-traffic alert, surround-view, park assist, rear collision warning, or park assistance.

Benefits of Automation

Now that we’ve discussed the different vehicle automation levels let’s look at the benefits of vehicle automation.

1. Safety – Automated vehicles are far safer than having drivers operate them, and hence have the potential to save lives and prevent injuries to passengers and pedestrians as a result of human mistakes. This is because self-driving cars are better than humans at detecting risks and reacting quickly enough to avoid colliding with other vehicles or pedestrians.

2. Economic Benefits – While autonomous vehicles have the ability to prevent traffic collisions, society will save a large amount of money in terms of lost lives, medical costs, and lost productivity at work. Reducing car accidents will save society a substantial amount of money, with some estimates putting the figure in the billions of dollars.

3. Efficiency – Autonomous vehicles can interact with one another, reducing traffic congestion and the number of time people spends caught in traffic jams. Commuters will save time on their commutes, money on gas, and car emissions will be reduced because they will spend less time on the road.

4. Productivity – Autonomous vehicles will boost commuter productivity by allowing them to spend their commute time on something other than driving. Commuters spend an average of 200 hours per year in their cars. Consider what you could accomplish with all that time if you didn’t have to worry about driving.

Wrapping Up

While fully autonomous driving is still a ways off, automakers are incorporating more advanced safety measures into their vehicles every year, lowering accidents and making drivers more comfortable with the idea of one day taking their hands off the steering wheel.

ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) and self-driving autonomous vehicles require a large volume of data to train the deep learning or machine learning models that will be deployed in vehicles. The more real-world data that an organization has to train its vehicles, the better the vehicles will perform when facing new environments they have never seen before. TagX offers data collection and annotation services for the training of ADAS and autonomous driving applications. We have experts in the field who understand data and its allied concerns like no other. Get your AI models optimized for learning with us.

Prashi Ostwal - Author