Two new reports have highlighted assisted- and self-driving as key factors predicted to boost the global automotive light detection and ranging (lidar) market.
According to Polaris Market Research, it will reach US$4.14bn by 2026, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 35%.
The report summary noted: “The solid-state/flash lidar market is expected to grow at a very high pace during the forecast period. Solid state sensor being low-cost, robust, as well as compact in size makes it ideal for potential large-scale production of level 3 and 4 cars in coming years. Further, mechanical sensors and other sensors also capture decent market share.”
A separate report, by Markets And Markets, largely concurs, projecting a CAGR of 21.6% to reach US$3.4bn by 2026. However, it focuses more on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – drones – and 4D lidar, with the prospect of new entrants making a big impact.
Lidar in self-driving
In March, Aeva announced that its Aeries 4D lidar sensors are now supported on the Nvidia Drive autonomous vehicle platform. As well as measuring distance and plotting the position of objects in x, y and z, 4D plots velocity as a fourth dimension.
Aeva CEO Soroush Salehian on self-driving
Both CEO Soroush Salehian and co-founder Mina Rezk previously worked on Apple’s Special Projects Group. “Bringing Aeva’s next generation 4D lidar to the Nvidia Drive platform is a leap forward for OEMs building the next generation of level 3 and 4 autonomous vehicles,” said Salehian.
“We believe Aeva’s sensors deliver superior capabilities that allow for autonomy in a broader operational design domain (ODD), and our unique features like Ultra Resolution surpass the sensing and perception capabilities of legacy sensors to help accelerate the realization of safe autonomous driving.”
You can always tell when a sector is thriving because dedicated events spring up. The fifth annual Automotive Lidar conference took place in September, while Lidar Magazine has documented the increasing crossover from surveying into car tech.
Its recent interview with Luis Dussan, founder of California-based AEye is well worth a read. “While at Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, I was designing mission-critical targeting systems for our fighter jets and special ops units that searched for, identified and tracked incoming threats,” he said.
“I realized that a self-driving vehicle faces a similar challenge: it must be able to see, classify, and respond to an object – whether it’s a parked car or a child crossing the street – in real time and before it’s too late.”
Of course, the established players are also pouring money at lidar, and making huge strides. Polaris highlighted Bosch, Continental, Delphi, Denso and Velodyne, among others, with Bosch boasting “the first long-range lidar suitable for the automotive mass market”. It has a detection range of over 200m.
Dr. Mustafa Kamil of Bosch on self-driving
Dr. Mustafa Kamil, Bosch’s project manager for automated driving sensors, explained: “For automated driving to become a reality, the vehicle must perceive its surroundings more effectively than humans can, at all times. Alongside cameras, radar and ultrasonic, a further sensor principle is required in order to achieve this goal.
“For example, when the ambient light changes from bright to dark upon entering a tunnel, it can briefly pose a challenge for the camera. Meanwhile the lidar sensor remains majorly unimpeded by the change in light conditions, and can reliably recognize objects at the entrance to the tunnel in these critical milliseconds.”
He continued: “A former supervisor once told me that a lidar sensor is like a plate of spaghetti: As soon as you try to grab one piece, the others move as well. If you want to make the sensor smaller, this affects properties such as the visual field-of-view or detection range. Optimizing all components in such a way that they do not impede other variables is technically challenging.”
Please note: a version of this article was first published by the Institute of the Motor Industry’s MotorPro magazine.
Self-driving news from Autonomy’s London City Summit 2022
Autonomy’s invitation-only London City Summit at the Southbank Centre featured a great line-up of speakers on subjects ranging from self-driving tech to last-mile logistics.
It was 12 October and, hands up, I could only spare a few hours (including lunch, of course), so apologies to those I missed.
The overriding theme was the UK as a showcase for the safe adoption of self-driving, with world-class testing facilities and sensible standards… and therefore a prime location for investment.
Bosch on self-driving
The event was sponsored by Bosch and my first session was a keynote by their head of autonomous transport solutions, Olaf Monz.
London City Summit 2022: Olaf Monz of Bosch on self-driving
“It’s not about selling a vehicle anymore, it’s about shaping an ecosystem,” he said, talking of the partnership with British software company, Five AI, which Bosch acquired earlier this year.
He promised that Bosch’s approach would be “chip agnostic” and referred to “the magic moment when you can remove the driver”.
There followed a short video of Bosch’s self-driving car navigating around an 18km route in Stuttgart at speeds of up to 100km/h.
Next up was a panel moderated by Nick Reed, of Reed Mobility, and featuring Connor Champ, lawyer on the Automated Vehicles Project at the Law Commission of England and Wales, and Jakob Kammerer, senior product manager at Bosch.
London City Summit 2022: Nick Reed self-driving panel
Reflecting the candour which characterised the whole event, Reed expressed surprise that he was allowed to call the session “Are we sure we want AVs in cities?”
Champ detailed how the government had accepted virtually all of the Law Commission’s recommendations. Notably, encouraging “a no blame safety culture”, with a regulator similar to the Civil Aviation Authority, and an incident investigator similar to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
To facilitate public acceptance, he wants said authority to report on how implementation is going. However, when it came to measuring safety, “people disagreed with every suggested metric!”
Jakob Kammerer poetically referred to discovering “the beauty in software”, describing Bosch’s pioneering work on verification and validation.
“Our trials show that people are curious about self-driving,” he said. “Transparency always helps. We explain what we are doing and why – to make improved mobility for everyone. Once they see that a product is good, that it works and solves a problem, they will adopt it very quickly.”
Buro Happold on self-driving
The next panel was moderated by Federico Cassani, director of transport and mobility at Buro Happold, and featured Prof Bani Anvari, of University College London, Margarethe Theseira, head of UK consulting at Buro Happold, and designer Marco Mazzotta of Heatherwick Studio.
London City Summit 2022: Federico Cassani self-driving panel
Prof Anvari outlined the impressive facilities at UCL’s new Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL) in East London, where they create all manner of life-sized surroundings and examine how people interact with them.
Theseira, an economist who advised on the new Elizabeth Line, looked at the costs and benefits of self-driving – the likelihood that “the real benefits will come when everything is fully automated”, but also her worry that “it will be a rich person’s toy”. She noted that car ownership is already much lower among lower income groups, resulting in restricted access to mobility and increased loneliness.
Cassani saw self-driving as “an opportunity for far more equitable mobility”, while Mazzotta mused on how cities might evolve architecturally with widespread AV adoption. He suggested that a huge amount of parking space could be freed up, asking: “What will we use the space for? Is it going to be public or private?”
Self-driving education
The last keynote before lunch was by Yasmine Fage, co-founder of Goggo Network, on her vision to provide all people with autonomous, electric and shared mobility. She described last mile delivery as “an increasing pain point for companies in cities”, and pointed to Goggo’s mobile lockers in Paris as one of many innovative solutions.
The networking lunch – a veritable banquet – was a chance to catch up with, among others, Lukas Nekermann (more of him in a moment), Patricia La Torre of Humanising Autonomy, Richard Barrington of Smart Cities and Land Mobility, Roland Meister of Five, Luigi Bisbiglia of SBD Automotive, Mark Cracknell of Zenzic, the CCAV’s Michael Talbot, and Dr Martin Dürr of Dromos.
London City Summit 2022: Lukas Nekermann on self-driving education
Immediately after lunch came a keynote by the aforementioned Mr Neckermann, of PAVE Europe. Cars of the Future readers will be familiar with PAVE’s origins in America and their mission to “inform the public about automated vehicles”. Despite a jibe from the audience about the required marketing budget (!), such educational initiatives must surely be welcomed.
Mobility super-apps
Next-up, the final session for me, was a panel on “mobility super-apps”, moderated by Suzanne Hoadley, of Polis, and featuring Duncan Robertson, of e-scooter and e-bike operator Dott, and David Koral of Free Now, “the app with the largest vehicle choice for consumers across Europe”.
London City Summit 2022: mobility super-apps panel
Robertson argued that decision makers must limit the number of operators as “having too many doesn’t work for anyone, although consumers might benefit from a price war to start with.”
Koral highlighted the importance of offering “anywhere to anywhere” journeys within cities and beyond, while both were surprisingly open to sharing data with public authorities.
The stat of the day was the Transport for London target that, by 2041, 80% of journeys in the capital should be either by public transport or active travel.
My capsule review is that reassuring uncertainty abounded. There was general agreement that self-driving will be a gamechanger, but people freely admitted they didn’t have all the answers. How will AVs impact future mobility? How quickly?
Many of the big questions remain unanswered, and we in the UK are comfortable with that for now, because safety is our top priority.
For further info, visit the London City Summit page on the Autonomy website
Level 5 already… and we’ve put a man on Mars, I’ve seen the film.
In late September, at the glamorous Chantilly Arts & Elegance event, near Paris, Volkswagen Group unveiled the Gen.Travel, an all-electric Level 5 concept vehicle. Sorry, did you just spill your tea?
“The all-electric powered Innovation Experience Vehicle (IEV) is a real prototype that drives autonomously (Level 5) and gives a realistic outlook for the mobility of the coming decade,” said the VW blurb. Sounds amazing.
Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation, says: “With Gen.Travel, we can already experience today what will be possible in the near future with innovative technology. Door-to-door travel at a new level. Emission-free and stress-free.”
Are VW really claiming to have cracked Level 5? That’s certainly the impression given by some reports.
“Volkswagen is presenting a new way of traveling in luxury and relaxation, with its new vehicle prototype featuring Level 5 autonomy that takes the wheel all the way from departure to arrival,” said Tech Times.
A quick reminder, the SAE international standard describes Level 5 as: “Can drive everywhere in all conditions”. That’s quite an ask.
In our 2020 long-read, Kevin Vincent, Director at the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Automotive Research, mused: “Level 5 in terms of anytime anywhere automation is very difficult; I sometimes wonder if it will be possible, and whether people will even want it.”
Not a problem, apparently VW have sorted it!
Long-read interview with self-driving expert Ben Upcroft, VP of Technology at Oxbotica.
Over the last few years, Cars of the Future has reported extensively on the growth of Oxbotica – from Founder and CTO Professor Paul Newman’s ambition to target “anything that moves people or goods”, to exciting partnerships with big hitters including BP, Navtech, NEVS, Ocado, Wenco and ZF, to its headline-grabbing achievement of running a zero-occupancy self-driving electric vehicle on UK public roads.
Self-driving expert: Ben Upcroft of Oxbotica
In this exclusive long-read interview, Oxbotica’s VP of Technology, Ben Upcroft, discusses the company’s vision for universal autonomy and its role in sustainable mobility.
NK: Thanks for your time, Ben. For starters, tell us about your work at Queensland University of Technology and how you ended up in the UK at Oxbotica?
BU: “I’ve been involved in robotics and autonomous platforms for over two decades, initially on draglines, shovels, and haul trucks for mining. We were looking to take autonomy out into the field, to understand how we could use it in industry. Since then, I’ve been involved in underwater robotic platforms, aerial vehicles, and robotic manipulation.
“Vehicles present such rich problems. Solutions will continuously evolve, just like computers – we’ve gone from mainframes taking up whole rooms to being in everyone’s pocket. Today, we have autonomous vehicles out there operating in all sorts of different domains – on-road, off-road and everything in between – and they’ll continue to improve.
“It has been a real privilege to be part of this product development, from the very early days to a place where we will see autonomy in everyone’s hands, where every person and every organisation will be able to leverage autonomy. That’s what attracted me to Oxbotica.
“We’re creating a Universal Autonomy software platform to enable any vehicle in any place to operate autonomously and gain all the benefits that autonomy brings – efficiency gains, productivity gains and safety gains.
“We’re working in different industries, with lots of different organisations, and have already deployed it into many different domains. To do that, we have made a software platform without baking in assumptions on the hardware, the domain, or the environmental conditions.
“Assumptions are dangerous. For example, to presume that you’ll always be able to see lane markings (not true for off-road domains) and making that a fundamental part of your technology limits your capability for off-highway and off-road domains. Conversely, thinking about things in terms of Universal Autonomy – with a capability to deploy around the globe in various domains – has many advantages.
“Oxbotica is one of very few companies, if any, operating in mining environments, airports, ports, quarries, urban environments for grocery deliveries and passenger transport. It’s such an exciting place to be, to see how we can enable all these industries to take advantage of autonomy.”
Self-driving: Oxbotica Applied EV in Oxford, May 2022
BU: “Yes, we’re really proud of that particular vehicle – demonstrating how, with our software, any type of vehicle can be autonomous. On one hand you had the technical challenge, but perhaps the greater challenge was understanding how to work with the government, proving bodies, regulatory bodies, policymakers and certification authorities to create the ecosystem.
“It was great to have all those appropriate authorities watching and being involved in the program – understanding how autonomy can go from an add-on to a vehicle driven by a human, to one with no human, no steering wheel or pedals. That unleashes a whole expanse of capabilities for industry to amplify, from deliveries to public transport.
“Zero occupancy enables all kinds of changes. For example, space savings because you don’t need to build a vehicle around the person anymore. Since the invention of the motor car, design has always had to be about the driver, until now. Then there’s power requirements, comfort levels, all those things.
“If it’s a zero-occupancy vehicle for grocery deliveries, the milk doesn’t care if the acceleration is different to what you’d expect from a normal car. If it has to stop and wait for a little while, maybe that’s not such a big issue, because you’re not optimising for the human in the loop anymore. I’m really excited to see how these factors change how industry operates.
“We call this an economy software platform, building on top of what autonomy brings. Much like Android on a Google phone – they don’t build all the apps, they build the capability for others to add apps.
“Microsoft never set out to build a booking system for a dentist business, but they enabled people to come up with the ideas and build on the platform to enable those capabilities. That’s what I really want to see – our platform enabling countless further innovations, progress that no one expected or foresaw.
“The zero-occupancy side of things is very exciting and Oxbotica is one of the first companies in the world, certainly in Europe, to achieve it on public roads.”
Self-driving: Oxbotica Applied EV
NK: It seems that every company developing self-driving tech pays close attention when someone else makes a breakthrough…
BU: “We all rely so much on vehicles to get our goods and move ourselves around, and autonomy brings such a new paradigm to transport, that I can absolutely understand why everyone’s watching everyone else – maybe Oxbotica more than most, because of the partnerships we’re building.
“Our Universal Autonomy capability makes us a horizontal across multiple industries. We build the software into all these different domains, all these different vehicles, and any industry can give us a call if they can see benefits in working with us.
“We’re not trying to be a taxi company or a mining company, and we don’t want to be. Just like we won’t tie people into using a certain type of sensor or fleet management system. We build software that enables companies to innovate, to amplify what they’re doing.
“We work with partners that are experts in their domains, and this gains us experience in terms of the benefits that autonomy can bring in different sectors. For example, Ocado has such an amazing automation system for grocery packing in their warehouses. What we do is connect a warehouse to the kerbside using autonomy, so they’re extending automation all the way to their customers.
“BP is another amazing partner to work with, because it has such a diverse set of domains. Solar farms, wind farms and refineries all require different types of vehicles, and they have locations all around the world which, again, means different requirements. We’re agnostic to the type of vehicle and the type of domain.
“ZF is an automotive tier one supplier developing passenger transport shuttles and we’re its autonomy software platform provider. That’s a super exciting partnership for us because we’ll enable these shuttles to operate autonomously in urban environments all around the world.
“Another one is NEVS, an OEM car manufacturer building small electric passenger vehicles.
Working on autonomy for these vehicles has really changed the way we think about how passengers and people can move around, reducing the need for individual car ownership and reducing congestion.”
Self-driving: Oxbotica Applied EV, 2022
NK: That brings us nicely to the relationship with the traditional motor industry. How do you see that evolving over the next 10 years?
BU: “It’s going to be mixed. You’re going to start seeing autonomy in some places, in some industries. As that proves out, it will expand, both geographically for that particular industry, and into other markets, as we as a community gain confidence and better understand the technology and the regulatory frameworks.
“There’s not a huge pull for consumers to have an autonomous car at their doorstep that they can use whenever they want. Don’t get me wrong, that’s potentially a very large market for the future. But there are other markets that have a need for autonomy right now – mining, airports, logistics – they’re looking for safety, productivity and efficiency gains, and the ability to operate 24/7.
“It’s likely that industries struggling to recruit enough drivers will increasingly turn to autonomy to deliver the kind of productivity levels they’re aiming for. And, as we service these markets, that will bring confidence.
“The ability to drive anywhere, anytime, anyplace is a vision that we are working towards, starting in domains that can significantly benefit from autonomy now. So you’ll start seeing autonomous public transport, shuttle buses, soon, within two to three years, maybe earlier.
“Those types of platforms will pop up in different cities, different urban environments. We’ll see other types of autonomous vehicles too, for goods delivery, for example, in an even shorter timeframe. And that’s just going to continue and expand. Autonomy brings so many advantages that industries will soon need to leverage it to be competitive.
“For us to deploy into all these different domains, we need to demonstrate that our technology is safe, both to get insurance and to assure the communities that we’re working with. But traditional verification and validation involves years of continuous testing, driving millions of miles. That doesn’t seem like the smartest way of going about it.
“We think there’s a way to verify and validate in a more accelerated way: to give the system the ability to test itself in simulation and find the edge cases much more rapidly. We’ve developed a product that enables rapid validation and verification called MetaDriver. It’s exciting. It will enable us to deploy new products more quickly, so everyone can gain the advantage of whatever new feature is available in autonomy. That will be key.”
CNBC in America has reported on a key exchange traded fund (ETF) for electric vehicle (EV) and self-driving stocks suffering “an ugly month” in September.
On Friday 30 September, the Global X Autonomous and Electric Vehicles ETF closed 37% off the group’s 52-week high.
CNBC said: “It was the second worst-performing month for the group on a percentage basis on record, behind only March 2020 when the overall stock market saw dramatic declines.”
Self-driving stock
CNBC re EV and self-driving stocks Sep 2022
Global X says the DRIV fund offers high growth potential, noting that: “While global EV registrations increased by more than 40% in 2020, EVs were still less than 5% of new cars sold, highlighting substantial room for further adoption.”
The top 10 holdings (as of 10/04/22) were:
Tesla
Apple
Microsoft
Alphabet
Qualcomm
Toyota
Nvidia
Intel
Pilbara Minerals
Honeywell
At Cars of the Future, we suspect the falls have more to do with the EV side and assisted driving than true self-driving… but rumours of a global recession don’t help!
Zenzic CAM – connected and self-driving – Scale-Up winners all get UK government funding
On 6 October, the UK self-driving organisation, Zenzic, announced the seven winners of its 2022 CAM Scale-Up Programme: Axitech; Calyo; Dromos; Eloy; Gaist; Oxford RF; and PolyChord.
The future of self-driving: Zenzic CAM Scale-Up Winners 2022
The selected start-ups and SMEs each win a share of UK government funding through the Centre of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), access to the world class testing facilities of CAM Testbed UK, and investment support from delivery partner Plug and Play.
They follow in the footsteps of six 2021 winners: Albora; Exeros; Grayscale AI; R4DAR; Xtract 360; and Route Konnect (celebrated at the brilliant CAM Innovators event in March this year). And five 2020 winners: Angoka; Beam Connectivity; Eatron Technologies; Helix Technologies; and RoboK. Will there be eight winners next year?!
Connected / self-driving
Here’s a bit about this year’s cohort:
Leeds-based Axitech for its Connected Collision Management Platform “empowering automotive organisations to deliver transformational customer and claims experiences”.
Bristol-based Calyo for its next-generation AI-enabled perception system, offering “an unprecedented combination of high performance, flexibility and low cost for smart mobile robots and autonomous vehicles”.
German company Dromos – partnered in the UK with designer PriestmanGoode and engineering firms Buro Happold and RLB – for its “high-density urban passenger & freight transport” offering the “highest passenger convenience” at “half the cost/space/time”.
Hertfordshire-based Eloy – a connected and autonomous vehicle software business “focused on multi-vehicle coordination”.
Skipton-based Gaist, “Leading the way in road scape and highways information”.
Oxfordshire-based Oxford RF Solutions, offering “breakthrough radar vision for autonomy”.
And, finally, Cambridge University spinout PolyChord for its “uniquely powerful data science technology”.
Throw in an intro by the CCAV’s Michael Talbot, a fireside chat with Kirsty Lloyd-Dukes of Waymo and Ben Peters of FiveAI, and a closing keynote by UK Automotive Council CAM Working Group chair David Skipp, it really was an action-packed couple of hours.
As programme director at Zenzic, Mark Cracknell, said: “These companies are the future that’s happening now.”
More questions than answers as self-driving delivery robot enters Los Angeles crime scene.
The incident itself – a suspected shooting – thankfully turned out to be a false alarm.
Was it self-driving?
However, the appropriation of blame is complicated by human intervention – a bystander lifting up the police tape to enable the robot to proceed, and the later claim that a human operator was responsible.
On 17 September, Serve Robotics, took to Twitter to clarify that: “This week a Serve robot failed to reroute around a police barrier because of human error. While robots are capable of operating autonomously in most circumstances, they’re assigned to human supervisors to ensure their safe operation, for instance when navigating a blockage. We respect the important work of law enforcement and are taking steps to ensure our operating procedures are followed in the future.”
This week a Serve robot failed to reroute around a police barrier because of human error. While robots are capable of operating autonomously in most circumstances, they're assigned to human supervisors to ensure their safe operation, for instance when navigating a blockage (1/2)
As with the Cruise robotaxi drive-off back in April – “Ain’t nobody in it!” the officer says – in America, autonomous vehicles are having real-world run-ins with the law.
It’s only a matter of time before similar incidents happen here in the UK.
Aurrigo’s self-driving vehicles arrive in Taunton, Somerset, as part of CCAV trial.
The good people of Taunton, Somerset, were treated to rides in Aurrigo’s self-driving Auto-Pod and Auto-Shuttle as The Great Self-Driving Exploration continued this week.
Run by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), and research specialist BritainThinks, a similar trial took place at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland in June.
Self-driving feedback
Lucy Bush, Research Director at BritainThinks, explained: “It offers an opportunity to understand what people think of self-driving vehicles as they are now, and also their expectations for the future.
“This will provide crucial insight to government and industry to support the development of self-driving technology that benefits everyone across the UK.”
For this event, it supplied three different vehicles:
Aurrigo self-driving vehicles at Alnwick Castle, June 2022
On the left, the ten-seater Auto-Shuttle is the first road legal vehicle to be manufactured by the Group. It can operate fully autonomously or be driven manually.
In the middle is the Auto-Deliver, a one-off prototype designed for home deliveries.
On the right is the four-seater Auto-Pod, designed for non-road passenger transportation, such as airports, university campuses and care communities.
At Taunton, the Auto-Pod operated at the picturesque Vivary Park, close to the town centre, while the Auto-Shuttle ran at Somerset County Cricket Club, where the Auto-Deliver was also on display.
Aurrigo self-driving Auto-Delivery vehicle at Somerset County Cricket Club, September 2022
At Alnwick, the Auto-Shuttle took passengers from the bus station up to the castle – a 1.2km route shared with cars, bikes and pedestrians – while the Auto-Pod carried passengers on a shared 500m path between the castle and Alnwick Gardens.
Aurrigo self-driving Auto-Pod at Alnwick Castle, June 2022
Ricky Raines, Operations Manager at Aurrigo, said: “We believe these types of first and last miles transport will be key to supporting people with mobility issues.
“These events are extremely useful in helping understand how individuals in rural locations feel about self-driving technology.”
Further afield, also in September, Aurrigo had a Pod at the joint Department for Transport (DfT) and Innovate UK stand at the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles.
Aurrigo self-driving Pod at ITS World Congress 2022
A new survey on full and partial self-driving by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in America has found significant mistrust of automated lane changing systems, with drivers preferring to stay hands-on and initiate the manoeuvre themselves.
The IIHS – a respected non-profit educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths from motor vehicle crashes – surveyed over 1,000 drivers on questions related to partial automation between September and October 2021, with the results published in June 2022.
The headline finding was that 80% wanted to use “at least some form of lane centering” – a strong endorsement for what we Brits call automated lane keeping systems (ALKS).
Report covers ADAS & ADS
IIHS report on consumer demand for ADAS and self-driving June 2022
36% preferred “hands-on-wheel” lane keeping, compared to 27% for “hands-free”, with 18% having no preference between the two types, 16% not wanting to use any form of lane keeping and 4% being unsure.
If you think that shows an appreciation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) but a mistrust of conditionally automated driving systems (ADS), the next finding appears to confirm that.
Asked about lane changing assistance (as opposed to just lane keeping), 73% said they would use some form of auto lane change. However, 45% said they’d prefer to use driver-initiated auto lane change compared to only 14% for vehicle-initiated auto lane change. 23% said they wouldn’t use either type, 13% had no preference and 5% were unsure.
What’s more, on self-driving technology, 35% said they found it “extremely appealing” while 23% said it was “not at all appealing”.
Alexandra Mueller, the IIHS survey’s primary designer, commented: “Automakers often assume that drivers want as much technology as they can get in their vehicles. But few studies have examined actual consumer opinions about partial driving automation.
“It may come as a surprise to some people, but it appears that partially automated features that require the driver’s hands to be on the wheel are actually closer to one-size-fits-all than hands-free designs.”
Another eye-catching finding was the high number of people “at least somewhat comfortable” with in-cabin driver monitoring to support such systems: 70% for steering wheel sensors, 59% for camera monitoring of driver hands and 57% for camera monitoring of driver gaze.
“The drivers who were the most comfortable with all types of driver monitoring tended to say they would feel safer knowing that the vehicle was monitoring them to ensure they were using the feature properly,” said Mueller.
“That suggests that communicating the safety rationale for monitoring may help to ease consumers’ concerns about privacy or other objections.”
Self-driving questions
For us, the study is particularly interesting in terms of the UK government’s plan to list vehicles approved under the Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) Regulation as self-driving.
Further still, the acceptance of driver monitoring seems relevant to point four of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Connected and Automated Mobility’s seven expert recommended red lines: “Establish minimum standards for data sharing and handling to ensure transparency and effective governance”.
Bournemouth University has highlighted the work of Dr Kyungjoo Cha, Senior Lecturer in Product Design, in helping Hyundai and Kia to ensure that their self-driving vehicles live up to the expectations of Gen Z users – those born between 1997 and 2012.
Specialising in user experience (UX) design, and working in partnership with Hyundai Motor Company’s Holistic UX Group, Dr Cha began the “auZentic” project to understand how young people perceive their digital life and entertainment needs.
Dr Kyungjoo Cha is helping self-driving vehicles live up to Gen Z expectations
“This is a fast-moving sector, with the development of new technologies and artificial intelligence,” she said. “The automobile sector has invested a great deal in research and development for autonomous vehicles, and now Hyundai and Kia have identified the need to understand what will drive the next generation’s experience.
“Generation Z were born with the internet. Their perceptions around entertainment and digital life are different to older generations. Understanding this is crucial for designing the vehicles of the future. It will not necessarily be just about chilling out in the vehicle – we found they are passionate about advocacy and getting behind projects in their digital life.”
Ongoing self-driving partnership
Kia and Hyundai’s positive response to the initial work led to a second stage of the partnership, investigating how users will want to interact and communicate with an autonomous vehicle.
“The people we spoke to gave us many examples of the type of relationship they could have,” said Dr Cha. “Some suggested a relationship like that between a horse and its rider, we also had comparisons to a butler and their employer, or an aeroplane pilot and auto-pilot. Some also spoke about being team players with their cars.
“Different contexts will determine how people want to communicate. For example, if someone was feeling emotional or upset, they might not want to talk.”
The suggested solution is a multi-model approach offering several options for communication between car and user, which could provide safety benefits as well as better user experiences.
2019 Hyundai video
Back in 2019, in the early days of Cars of the Future, this futuristic video of Hyundai’s EV wireless charging and automated valet parking concept was one of our most popular features.
