Author Bio : Anand Rajendran is the CEO
and Co-Founder of Gacie, a company that offers best app development
services for android and IOS phones. A digital marketer by profession, he
aims at implementing the latest ideas in internet marketing and
mobile apps. Rideyo is the recent uber clone script mobile app
from his company that fulfills the exact needs of taxi business with advanced
features.
All the automakers and the transportation companies are busy
working on their self driving cars. The people from the transportation and
automobile industry said that the autonomous cars can reduce fifty percent of
the accidents that takes place due to the drivers.
The driverless cars
from the automaker
The driverless cars play an important role in the
development of safety measures in the transportation industry and to escalate
the transition of the world to the future. The autonomous driving technology
will permit Tesla to run safer than a human, reduce the transportation cost for
the car owners and offer on demand mobility service for the people who do not own
a vehicle. Tesla made an announcement on October, in which it said that the
vehicles, including the Model S, Model X and Model 3 that are produced in their
factory will have an autonomous driving technique that is equipped with high
end safety features that are more efficient than the human.
The vehicle has 12 updated ultrasonic sensors that detect
the soft and the hard objects that are double the distance of the system; the
vehicle also has 8 cameras that enable 360° visibility up to 250 meters of range
around the vehicle. Radar is attached to the vehicle that faces forward and has
enhanced processing technique that provides the information about the
environment in redundant wavelength such that the vehicle can sense the car
ahead even during fog, heavy rain and dust.
An onboard computer that is forty times better than the
previous generation is equipped with the Tesla vehicles that run the software
programming for the sonar, vision and radar. Therefore, the new autonomous
vehicle not only does the driving process, but it also senses the surrounding
environment along with the wavelengths that are beyond the reach of the human
driver.
Tesla vehicles are
not meant for ridesharing services
When the automaker announced about their self driving
vehicles, they also said that they will not encourage their customers to use
the vehicle for the ridesharing purpose. So, people who thought of buying the
Tesla Model 3 to pickup Lyft or Uber rides have to be aware of the new
announcement made by the carmaker.
The announcement came along with the legal disclaimer
stating that the autonomous functionality used in the vehicles depends on the
regulatory approval and the extensive software validation that differs
according the jurisdiction. And they are not aware of the fact that when these
functional elements mentioned will be available, since it depends on the
approval of the local regulation. It also mentioned that the people who are
using the Tesla car for ride hailing or car sharing for the family or friends
is not a problem, but it does not permit its users to use the autonomous cars
for the revenue purpose because it is only allowed in the Tesla networks and
the company will release the details only in the following year.
In general, the duration of the cars used by the owners is
only five percent to ten percent of the day; however, the autonomous cars will
be used for extra time than the other cars. And with the legal disclaimer it
seems that the carmaker plans to venture into the ridesharing network, because
it said that when the demand exceeds the supply of the private cars, they will
operate their own fleet.
Competes with the car
sharing network
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla said that when the regulators
approve the autonomous vehicles, the users can summon the vehicle from
anywhere. And once when the vehicle picks the passengers, they can do anything
they wish to do while enrooting to the desired location. He said that the
people who wish to take part in the fleet network can add their vehicle to the
Tesla’s fleet service by using the mobile app and generate more income even
when they are on vacation or at work.
This new car sharing plan of the carmaker competes directly
with the ridesharing giant, Uber because it is also in the course of launching
the driverless cars. Already, the San Francisco based car sharing giant
launched its pilot program in Pittsburgh in September that enabled the users to
hail in autonomous vehicles on the streets of the city with the assistance of
the driver and the engineer sitting in the front seat. However, Uber is ahead
of the carmaker in the autonomous driving technology by launching the service
early in the market. It also shows that the company’s ridesharing market
dominates in many cities in the United States.
Tesla, the very own name is an advantage for the company to
stand alone in the market, just like the technology company Apple. To this
note, a report states that about one hundred and fifteen thousand people have
pre-booked the Model 3 from Tesla even before seeing the new version. And many
people will welcome the ridesharing concept of Tesla simply because they get
the chance to ride the branded vehicle that they cannot afford to own.
The ridesharing service does not limit to any specific
brands, but Tesla plans to create a new revolution in the ridesharing industry.
However, it is difficult to tell whether how many Tesla car owners will lend
their vehicle the company’s ridesharing program to meet the increased demand in
the future.
Autonomous
capabilities of the next generation cars
The 1st generation autopilot is integrated into
the vehicles that will enable them to automatically steer the wheel, change the
lanes according to the signals, when the signal is on, it exits off ramps,
checks for parking slots, self Parallel Park, parks vehicle perpendicularly and
summoned from the garage. The new hardware tech is included to the pre existing
capabilities of the autopilot vehicles that allow the vehicles to do certain
things without the human touch, like the driving in traffic roads, move to the
lanes without any manual input, and the on/off transition without any driver
assistance. These are some of the features capable of the self driving
vehicles.
The on/off freeways merging features and other highway
capabilities are not available in the self driving cars of the ridesharing
company’s Ford Fusion, because the vehicles are designed for the city roads.
And, the Ford Fusion can work only in some places in Pittsburgh city, while the
Tesla autonomous vehicle is capable of accessing in any location. However, the
Uber’s self driving cars read the stop signs and the traffic signals and this
cannot be achieved by the Tesla vehicles until they are completely autonomous.
Uber’s autonomous cars handle level 3autonomy and they are
limited to certain locations, but the Tesla driverless car achieve the level 2
autonomy and is developing at faster levels. However, both the vehicles require
a driver to take control of the wheels in case of emergency.
The autonomous system looks to be cheaper because Tesla uses
8 cameras, less expensive lidar sensors, 12 ultrasonic sensors and the basic
price seems to be only eight thousand dollars. While Uber’s roof kit consists
of GPS, radar sensors, 7 lidar and 20 cameras and it costs less than ten
thousand dollars, but the car sharing company refused to state the exact
amount.
However, it is clear that the automobile companies and the
car sharing companies together will launch the fully autonomous vehicles in the
ridesharing platform.
