One of my favorite topics to cover for Wireless Design & Development is vehicular autonomy. I’ve written about both positive and negative aspects of driverless cars, from the various innovative features and accessories these vehicles will (or currently) contain, to the high level of public distrust surrounding this particular industry. While it’s clear that vehicular autonomy still has ways to go before becoming a ubiquitous part of everyday life (and gaining the public’s trust in the process), the progress that’s been made in this sector cannot be overlooked. We have cars on the road that have some autonomous capabilities, but are nowhere close to seeing fully self-driving vehicles.
Waymo, Google’s self-driving car project that started in 2009, is one of the companies spearheading advancement in this particular section of the automotive industry. Waymo also has “the most advanced self-driving vehicles on the road today,” with some models that feature fully autonomous capabilities. Waymo has been testing vehicles with level four and five autonomous capabilities, and have yielded some encouraging results. The video below shows a demonstration of these autonomous cars that occurred this past fall, which not only showcases the self-driving capabilities of these vehicles, but did so without even having a human driver sit behind the wheel.