Artificial intelligence has had a dramatic impact on the efficiencies of daily human tasks as well as complex intellectual tasks that require substantial human intelligence. AI is taking over the automotive industry as well, handling the reins in every department ranging from designing and manufacturing cars to car maintenance, safety, and AI-enabled cockpits. Self-driving cars like 2021 Tesla Model S are now a reality, thanks to the rapid advancements in AI technologies over the years.
The fact that simple everyday cars like the 2021 Toyota RAV4 and the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas could become self-driving cars at your command, ignites a spark in the imaginations of countless customers today. The impact of AI isn’t just bound to cars on the luxurious end of the spectrum. Autonomous cars today are also adapting to complex human behavior, thanks to AI technology. Here we discuss how AI is laying the foundation for smarter cars within the next decade, with the main focus on AI-powered cockpits, technology, driverless vehicles and even smart transportation.
AI-Powered Cabin
Over the course of fifteen years, cars have experienced connectivity in the form of cellular modems in the more advanced vehicles to the high-tech 4G Wi-Fi connectivity that you would find in most cars today. Today, AI has taken over the automotive world for vehicles of all price ranges. AI controls almost every aspect of your cockpit, enabling you to personalize, interact with in-car assistants like Alexa or Google, monitor your driving patterns, and access the latest systems to simplify driving.
Automotive companies often see the cockpit as a way to differentiate their brands. Hence, automakers also take the extra steps to customize their software applications as per their own brand motives. This way they extend their brand’s hospitality through a smooth user-friendly experience.
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Automakers today are partnering with various software companies to create interactive and intimate user interaction. This is where AI sends the user behavioral patterns to the automakers to help them create more personalized and intimate user experiences through their in-car systems and passenger safety.
AI is already present in your car in more ways than you can imagine. Let’s start with your infotainment system. These AI-powered infotainments learn your habits and preferences over time. So, the next time you step in your car after a stressful day, the AI plays the perfect soothing playlist for you.
Today’s cars are also integrated with AI-powered voice UI- just speak out your favorite destination, change the cabin temperature, or play the music with the power of your voice. Thanks to developments in AI speech recognition, natural language processing, and text-to-speech, users now interact on a personal level with their cockpits.
AI Technology
AI has a substantial influence on intelligent driver assistance systems like in-cabin monitoring and ultra-HD surround view monitoring. With the help of an inward-facing camera, AI based driver fatigue systems check the driver’s facial expressions, voice, gestures, and body language to determine whether he has his eyes on the road. Similarly, radar and ultrasound sensors play a key role in monitoring the outside driving conditions in real-time. Suppose the car is approaching an icy road. These sensors act upon by issuing an alert, activating the all-wheel-drive, and limiting the car’s speed.
AI is the major technology empowering all these advanced maneuvers in computer vision, voice recognition, and object classification. Recently, Qualcomm Snapdragon introduced its 4rd-gen Automotive Cockpit Platform, which might be the automotive industry’s first scalable AI platform. These new platforms receive faster developments and over-the-air updates, enabling companies to integrate AI services into cars more rapidly.
Autonomous Driving
The dream of fully autonomous cars roaming freely on the streets feels straight out of a sci-fi movie. However, this dream is edging closer to reality as we encounter gradual ramp-ups in the level of automation of self-driving cars. Still, autonomous cars practically require some level of human intervention. The trust factor among the customers regarding self-driving technologies is still under construction. Currently, there exist 5 levels of Advanced Driver Assistance systems in the industry, with the last level even removing the necessity of a steering wheel from the equation.
These sensors helps the AI algorithm to understand its environment on a more, accurate, reliable, and real-time basis. Eventually, these sensors improve and the cities will implement smarter infrastructure as well. In such an instance, the AI may be able to make smarter choices and pilot the car on its own. For now, the AI still leaves the most complex decisions regarding occupant safety to its human operator.
Smart Transportation
As vehicles grow smarter in the near future, we may also bear witness to major infrastructure changes to the city’s transportation networks. Next-gen city models will utilize AI to build real-world road models in high-resolution 3D graphics. With the input from various high-resolution CCTVs, radars, neural networks, GPS, as well as algorithms that fuse sensors, smart cities can relay regularly updated maps. This same information will be sent to the cars at that particular junction with C-V2X technology.
Thus, with the help of roadside units fixed with multiple cameras and radars, cars will receive live updates of any type of traffic condition in the case of emergencies. Smart city infrastructures can evaluate real-time data to send out appropriate instructions to vehicles such as taking an alternative route, switching lanes, slowing down, or making a stop in traffic as necessary.
These roadside units can also detect pedestrians with their AI-based camera perception. Thus, the system can send over-the-air alerts to all the cars at the intersection and help protect pedestrians. These units also keep track of the state of the traffic signal and broadcast these ‘Time to Signal’ messages to all cars within the intersection. Thus, the AI can interpret changes in traffic lights, enabling a smooth flow of traffic within the city.
Conclusion
AI has changed the way we percept our daily ride-on-wheels. AI has almost breathed life into our daily rides, as our cars continuously adapt to the changes of our surroundings even while in motion. Self-driving cars are now a real prospect, as more and more customers place trust in the AI algorithms behind its driving.
Moreover, with AI reducing the possibilities of stressful city commutes or traffic congestions, our society gains invaluable hours of productivity. With this valuable time saved, humans can undertake fruitful activities to rejuvenate themselves once again.