AUTO-PILOT: THE TECH WE NEED OR DO WE?

The technology in recent times has advanced leaps and bounds and made many seemingly impossible tasks possible. The introduction to various tech gadgets and software have helped us stay inter-connected to the rest of the planet in terms of technology. Technology seeped into everywhere, be it communication, health, manufacturing and most importantly transportation and automobile industry. From a Model-t to a Rolls-Royce or a Tesla, the automobile industry is one of the major industries that is affected by technology and just when we are thinking how can the automobile industry be further improved, the concept of Auto-Pilot was developed………..

WHAT is AUTO-PILOT?

Most of us have watched Sci-fi movies where the main characters would have at least once used this Auto-Pilot technology. What exactly does “Auto-Pilot” mean? It refers to the process which enables the car to self-drive on highways without much human intervention, this is usually achieved by usage of sensors, GPS maps, radars

Source: Internet Image: Visual Interpretation of Autopilot in a Car

HOW IT BEGAN?

Although Autopilot is relatively a new concept in cars, this concept was first introduced into aviation industry way back in 1912. In fact, the first aircraft autopilot was developed by Sperry Corporation in 1912. This autopilot connected a gyroscopic heading indicator and attitude indicator to hydraulically operated elevators and rudder

Source: internet Image: A world war 2 era Auto-Pilot control for aircraft

Although the concept of self-driving cars is still relatively untouched, the experiments with self-driving cars began as earls as in the 1920’s, promising signs were shown in the 1950’s and the frequency of experiments and research doubled.

However, it’s in the 1980’s that the first sustainable self-driving cars came into public attention. In 1987 Mercedes-Benz and University of Munich’s “Project Prometheus” developed major projects. Since then major companies like Tesla, Toyota, Audi, Google have done lots of research to make this technology available for everyone.

Source: Internet Image: GM Firebird II (one of the first cars with Autopilot tech)

PROS AND CONS.

In recent times, autopilot has been one of the major controversial topics among automobile experts and peers alike. There are some who say that this tech is a major revolution in automotive industry and there are some who say that it’s still unexplored and can be dangerous without high intensity research. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. is one of the major personalities to defend Autopilot and he also induced it into Tesla Model-X.

Elon Musk has been a major supporter of autopilot tech.

Source: Internet Image: Tesla Model X

Autopilot can be useful in the following ways:

1) 60% drop in harmful emission

2) 10% increase in fuel economy

3) 100% reduction in stop-and-go waves

4) Reduction in accidents (you read that right)

5) 40% reduction in travel time and

6) Consumer savings of 5 billion pounds.

However there are still many people who argue that the autopilot tech has not been handled properly and concerns grew when the test vehicles of Google and Tesla met with accidents, however the companies argue that these accidents occur only due to human errors as chances of errors by an AI is almost next to zero. Many people also argue that this tech can also make humans even lazier than they are now. Some people also questioned the budget used for cost of setup for this technology.

Overall, the idea of autopilot seems exciting and thrilling and makes us wonder about the capabilities of the modern technology. However, we cannot be brazening or irresponsible while utilizing modern tech and Autopilot is a prime example for it.

A S S SIDDARDHA (Dept. of Mechanical engineering)

R18ME001@me.reva.edu.in

REVA UNIVERSITY