Autonomous Driving Technology

A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous vehicle, or driverless car, or robotic car, is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and moving safely with little or no human input.

Autonomous Vehicle are now-a-days available in electric variant also. Previously only petrol/diesel powered vehicles are available in the market but the increasing trend of using electric vehicle in market encouraged automobile companies to introduce an electric variant of autonomous vehicle. In today’s scenario, many automobile companies are working in the field of autonomous driving technology.

The introduction of autonomous feature in Electric Vehicle is going to be an important feature to define the market strategy of the vehicle in market. Electric vehicle is not only encouraging the use of environment friendly cars but also enabling one of the most important features to provide comfort to the driver.

Globally, many EV companies are already taking a big leap towards autonomous driving to make it a reality in the near future. Autonomous driving technology will not only make long-distance drives more comfortable but also make driving much safer. It will reduce accidents on the roads that result from driver distraction, reduce traffic congestion and offer increased access to seniors and people with disabilities. 

Automated driving systems could also impact the public's pockets in many ways, besides reducing the number of crashes, they would also reduce medical bills, money spent on vehicle repair and even the cost of insurance.

Autonomous vehicles come at a cost: increased energy use. Some analysts suggest that these increased power needs are significant enough to drastically reduce vehicle range thus eliminating the possibility of electric autonomous vehicles. Instead, these analysts claim autonomous vehicles must be gas-electric hybrids. In a paper published in Nature Energy, Carnegie Mellon University researchers Aniruddh Mohan, Shashank Sripad, Parth Vaishnav and Venkat Viswanathan determined that electric power can supply enough energy for an autonomous vehicle without a significant decrease in range.

Two revolutions are happening side-by-side in the automotive industry: the transition to electric power and the rise of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars may use more energy than people-driven cars to power sensors and computers for safe navigation. On the other hand, they drive more smoothly than humans do, which would reduce energy use.