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What Are Autonomous Cars?
An autonomous car is also called a “driverless car” or a “self-driving car”.
It is a car that is able to operate itself and perform necessary functions without any human intervention. It achieves this through its ability to sense its surroundings.
An autonomous vehicle utilizes a fully automated driving system in order to allow the vehicle to respond to external conditions that a human driver would manage.
Self-driving cars combine a variety of sensors to perceive their surroundings, such as radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry and inertial measurement units.
Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage.
There several possible use of the driverless vehicle technology. They include personal self-driving vehicles, shared robotaxis, connected vehicle platoons and long-distance trucking.
Several projects to develop a fully self-driving commercial car are in various stages of development. Waymo became the first service provider to offer robotaxi rides to the general public in a part of Phoenix, Arizona in 2020,. Meanwhile, Tesla has said it will offer subscription-based “full self-driving” to private vehicle owners in 2021.
Startup Nuro has been allowed to start autonomous commercial delivery operations in California in 2021.
In China two publicly accessible trials of robo-taxis have been launched, in 2020 in Shenzhen’s Pingshan District by Chinese firm AutoX and in 2021 at Shougang Park in Beijing by Baidu, a venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
