Self-driving cars and how the Subaru company is changing the game, as explained in CarBuzz. Most of the companies are working on making their cars self-driving. These vehicles use their sensors and computers to understand the road and control the vehicle. This method is good because the vehicles can theoretically run on any road and they do not need any special road.
However, there are some drawbacks to this method. These cars depend entirely on what they can see and feel, and that's not always true. Bad roads, bad weather, such as heavy rain or fog, or snow-covered roads, can make it difficult for vehicle sensors. In such a situation, the car is not able to get information properly.
To overcome these difficulties, Subaru is working with a different mindset. They are trying to build roads that can talk to vehicles. Since last year, Subaru has been working on this technology. They have created a test loop in Hokkaido, Japan to test these systems. This system uses not only self-driving cars, but also 5G communication systems and fiber-optic sensors installed in the roads.
These special road sensors are made by Kajima Corporation, which is a company based in Japan and does civil engineering work like roads and tunnels. These sensors can detect the presence of vehicles on the roads. They can also tell the number of vehicles and their exact location on the road. This information is then sent through the communication system to the vehicle's computer and perhaps to outside computers as well.
Read Also: 2003 Ford F-250 Super Duty: Work Truck with Just 5,300 Miles
All this helps the self-driving car to know what is happening around it and where it is. In addition to Hokkaido's test course, Subaru and Kajima have also installed sensors on the access road of a tunnel in Osaka for test and demonstration during this year's Japan International Exposition.
A big advantage of this technology is that it can give information even in difficult situations. Subaru has also installed its system in Hokkaido because there is a lot of snow. With this, Subaru and Kajima can ensure that the system works even when the roads are completely covered with snow.
Read Also: Jeep Cherokee's new avatar: Preparations to launch the old look with a modern touch!
If the sensors can detect vehicles even when they're buried in snow, that could be very important information for self-driving cars. This is because the vehicle's cameras and other sensors cannot see road signs or other identifying objects, which are very important to know the exact location of the vehicle.
Even in other less visible conditions, such as heavy rain and fog, these road sensors can be very useful, even if there is no snow. Simply put, incorporating road infrastructure into self-driving systems can provide a lot of additional and useful information, making these vehicles better and safer.
However, this technique also has its drawbacks, including additional cost and complexity. Installing sensors in roads will never be cheap or easy. Then, those sensors will also have to be maintained, which will increase the cost over time. It's the same with all the communication technology used to connect cars and roads.
Latest Videos From Car Bed
These systems will also have to be standardized so that self-driving vehicles from all automakers can use them. That's a big challenge. It took the automaker a long time to agree on a plug design for car charging, so they're not very confident in how long it will take to come together on infrastructure standards for self-driving cars.
In the long term, backward compatibility with older vehicles could also be an issue. So, this technology can make self-driving much better, but the cost of implementing it and the hurdles it faces are huge.
Source: CarBuzz
