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Autonomous Vehicles



The autonomous vehicle was idealised in 1939 when Norman Bel Geddes created the New York World's Fair: General Motors "Highway and Horizons" exhibit aptly titled "Futurama". On exhibition was an automated highway system with self-driving automobiles. The success of this exhibition was driven by the notion that driving was a 'mundane' task and the idea of a vehicle driving autonomously was an exciting forecast of the future (Petroski 2016). His version of the electric vehicle was guided by radio-controlled electromagnetic fields generated with magnetised metal spikes installed in the roadway (Gringer 2018).


Presently, autonomous vehicles are utilised in many applications and industries, including mining, construction, military, research, delivery, and most evidently in the consumer automotive industry (Araya 2019). In mining and construction, autonomous trains, trucks, and loaders are utilised at mine sites. In Mali, the usage of a fully autonomous system at the Resolute Mining operation has scaled down mining costs by 30 per cent and the cost of producing gold per ounce by $135 (Burns, Carroll & Filho 2020). In Australia, the Pilbara mining site run by the Rio Tinto mining corporation has recently expanded its operations to include "its first fleet of autonomous trucks in the Newman East iron ore mine" (Zhou, 2020). In addition to these trucks, Rio Tinto has also greatly expanded its use of "autonomous drilling systems" by adding an extra nine drills to the eleven that were already in use at its mines in Pilbara (Mining Technology, 2018). Furthermore, Rio Tinto operates the railway system "AutoHaul", which is the first of its kind in "fully autonomous, long-distance railway systems" (RioTinto, n.d.).


Currently, military purposes of autonomous vehicles are supply convoys near enemy zones, navigating in low visibility and areas deemed too treacherous for human soldiers. Studies have shown that this innovation has the potential to reduce soldier deaths as well as keep missions in focus (Neus 2021). When French soldiers recently completed military exercises, they included the use of the Boston Dynamics automated dog named "Spot" (Vincent, 2021) for reconnaissance training. Other training scenarios involving Spot included "offensive capture", "defensive actions" at night and "an urban combat test" (Vincent, 2021). In all of these scenarios, the soldiers fared far better when Spot was able to do reconnaissance first before the training started. Though this is an exciting development and could potentially be immensely helpful to the military, there currently exist certain limitations to this technology. During the training exercises completed by the French military, soldiers found that Spots battery had run out before they were able to complete the operations (Vincent, 2021). It may be that further developments in battery technology will need to be seen before military dogs such as Spot can enjoy widespread use.


Other developments in autonomous vehicles within a military context include Smart Aerial Monitoring Systems or (SAMS). The Australian military, in particular, makes use of the Nano UAS Black Hornet drone. The benefits of this system include an easy-to-use system that takes soldiers only "five days of training" to know how to operate it. Small and portable, it has also been described as "a tiny hand-held helicopter" that can be operated by a single soldier (Bardoe, n.d.). The Black Hornet is silent, which makes it stealthy to use and can take off in under a minute (ArmyTechnology, n.d.). It includes a "steerable optic camera", an autopilot mode allowing it to be used both by an operator or fly on its own on a pre-programmed path. Additionally, it has a "small rechargeable battery" as well as being able to reach speeds of up to 10m/s (ArmyTechnology, n.d.).


In the area of delivery, robotics start-up Nuro is on track to commence testing on their self-driving delivery vehicles. These speed-limited vehicles can only operate in certain weather conditions using thermal imaging, radar and 360-degree cameras to control their movement (Kolodny 2021). Amazon has taken their delivery drones one step further with its 'Amazons Prime Air' service promising to "deliver packages of up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less" (Amazon, n.d.). Another innovation in the sphere of delivery robotics is the Google Wing drone, which provides delivery from pharmacies, coffee shops, even hardware stores directly to your home (Wing, n.d.). The typical delivery time for the Wing drone is around "10-15" minutes (Koetsier, 2021). Not only are the Wing Drones a cheaper delivery option than human driver delivery systems such as Uber Eats, but they are also more environmentally friendly, being up to 50 times more efficient than "car-based delivery" (Koetsier, 2021).


In research, scientists have employed the usage of autonomous vehicles for undersea and atmospheric research. An example of this for predicting the weather is the Saildrone which goes out to sea fitted with solar panels and an abundance of sensors to obtain localised measurements of dozens of variables above and below the sea surface (Saildrone 2020). By 2010, many popular car manufacturers such as Ford, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and Toyota have begun testing driverless car systems. Google, the creator of Google Maps and Waymo, is infamously piloting the usage of their self-driving cars on the open road, its end goal; fully autonomous vehicles (Weber 2014). Tesla's chief executive officer (CEO), Elon Musk, has also recently indicated that a "full self-driving" beta software would be available to approved drivers in October of 2021 (McFarland 2021).


The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) established a classification system that determines the level of automation a car has. Ranging from 0 to 5, at 0, vehicles do not have automation technology, and at 5, vehicles are fully autonomous (Choksey & Wardlaw 2021).


There are several complex and current technologies required in autonomous vehicles. The key sensors that enable environment perception in autonomous vehicles are LiDAR1 , vision, radar and sonar (Jahromi 2019). A current development, a new AI camera invented by Stanford engineers, possess better image classification used in an autonomous automobile. These cameras utilise computational power to process images more quickly and efficiently (Stanford University 2018). These sensors work harmoniously with the following technologies:


As the private sector continues to invest heavily in developing autonomous vehicle technologies, use cases across the board in many industries will be justified. In the next few years, an increase in autonomous public transportation such as buses and taxis will be seen on the roadways (Dans 2021). One such example is the trial of a 'commercial driverless bus,' which is being developed by researchers at Curtin University in Western Australia. Curtin's bus is powered solely through electricity and uses a range of technology such as "input digital programming, remote sensors and GPS" to navigate its way around the city. (Curtin University, n.d.) It is hoped that this driverless bus will be able to empower people with physical disabilities, as well as mitigate car accidents. It has been found that roughly 90% of road accidents are caused by human error. (Curtin University, n.d.) Moreover, it is not only people with physical disabilities who stand to benefit from developments in autonomous transportation. A research group in Malaysia has discovered that a major cause of accidents on the road is due to 'driver drowsiness.' Using metrics such as "vehicle-based measures, behavioural measures and physiological measures," the researchers were able to build a solution to overcome driver fatigue and design a system that detects and warns the driver when they are becoming drowsy at the wheel (Sahayadhas, Sundaraj & Murugappan 2012, p. 16938).


Figure 1: Autonomous Vehicle Sales, Fleet, Travel and Benefit Projections (Litman 2021)

Figure 1: (This graph indicates that as autonomous vehicle production increases, autonomous vehicles will cost less to produce. Consequently, more benefits will be realised by the public such as cheaper taxi services, less driver stress, reduced congestion and emissions due to battery-operated autonomous vehicles and more importantly, increased road safety.)


Immediate effects of this technology could be felt by aging parents who are losing mobility and could benefit from private autonomous vehicles as well as autonomous public transport. Stress and driver fatigued for family and friends could be reduced as well as having peace of mind that the roads are safer in general. During this period in history in the Covid-19 pandemic, autonomous delivery drones can be particularly useful for delivering basic goods. This would also eliminate further stress on individuals who may have been performing food delivery tasks for people in quarantine.


Developments within the sphere of autonomous vehicles will be far-reaching and beneficial to people the world over. People with mental illnesses or physical impairments may be some of the first to benefit from this technology as it could allow them to have greater autonomy and mobility within their life. The road fatality rate could be drastically reduced as occurrences of accidents on the road is overwhelmingly caused by human drivers. Autonomous drone technology, which assists with military operations, will aid the soldier of the future by keeping military personnel safer and better informed of enemy positions when deployed on missions. Further developments in delivery drones could be the next natural evolution in delivery technology, with applications such as the Google Wing Drone possibly taking over the role of UberEats and minimising the environmental footprint of having excess cars on the road. Advances in autonomous mining machinery will also make the work of people work on mining sites a lot safer; rather than having to physically drive the trucks, they can now move into a control room to manage operations from a distance (Robinson, 2019). Automated weather detection systems can enhance governments capabilities to monitor weather systems, and having improved alert systems around dangerous weather systems would have a far-reaching and positive impact all around the globe. In particular, for vulnerable communities who are often impacted to a great extent when hazardous weather events take place (United Nations, n.d.).


In conclusion, autonomous vehicles and the technology associated with developments in this domain will have far-reaching impacts the world over. From driverless cars and automated busses, fully automated mining sites and automated machinery for weather detection, military robotics to make the role of a soldier safer, to delivery drones to have a smaller environmental footprint. This technology is set to change the world as we know it and is set to be integrated into every facet of our world and daily lives.



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