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Alex Rosenzweig
Brandy Scalise
Final Report
Literature Review On Driverless Cars

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351 Foreman Ave Building 6 APT 303
Lexington, KY 40508

Date: September 24, 2016

To: Dr. Brandy Scalise
WRD 204 Teacher
From: Alex Rosenzweig (Student at UK)
Purpose
The purpose of my paper is to do a literature review on the most up to date
information out in the field on driverless cars. I hope to give to my employer a better
understanding of what is at stake with these cars as far as safety and the well being of this
technology. I would hope to recommend that this technology get used full time soon.
The purpose of this final project is for people interested in the field of
autonomous vehicles to gain a better understanding of how their implementation will
affect society. Driverless cars are leading the future in improvements to not just safety
but to awareness in an increasing use of technology.
They are the future of driving. These creations could drastically improve the lives
of people with disabilities prohibiting them from driving. Google currently has a fleet of
seven autonomous cars all of which can navigate tight turns and even bridges. Theyve
had theses cars on the streets for quite sometime now, and hope to employ them fully
soon. They are the future problems to be solved by the next generation of mechanical
engineers.

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I will personally reach out to contact various companies and people working with

this technology, to get the most up to date and detailed information. This will give me a
first hand resource. However, not all personal resources are reliable, so I will also obtain
a great deal of information from scholarly articles as well as literature too.
Abstract
In this report I hope to achieve a couple of goals. I would hope for the intended
audience to gain a valuable understanding of driverless cars. I would also hope if
someone were to be uneducated on the material that they gain more information about
them. This report should also give the audience more interest in this field as it could be a
great benefit in the near future.

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Table of Contents
Introduction5
Background6
Problem Section7
Current Availability8
Why they have not advanced further?...10
Conclusion12
References13

Introduction
Imagine you come out of an airport and climb in the back of the nearest taxi. A voice
asks where you want to go, so you state your destination and the taxi pulls away. But, as
the street lights sweep through the cab you realize that there is no driver(Murray 14).
The automobile industry is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative businesses in the
country. Car manufacturers strive to implement the latest and greatest features into their
models everyday. One such feature that has everyone buzzing is autonomous technology.
Driverless cars are leading the future in improvements to not just safety but to an
increasing awareness of this technology. They are the future of driving. These creations
could drastically improve the lives of people with disabilities prohibiting them from
driving. Imagine the difference in a persons life this technology could make to someone
who is blind. What if it was your grandmother that caused an accident because she didnt
see someone in her blind spot? It could also be someone with no legs or arms. Whether
its the elderly or a war veteran missing a limb, driverless technology could help these
people to drive and make the surrounding area safer. Google currently has a fleet of seven
autonomous cars all of which can navigate tight turns and even bridges. They have had
these cars on the streets for quite sometime now and hope to employ them fully soon.
However, it hasnt taken off. There are a lot of costs and expenses to consider when

looking into the cars. In order to evaluate the success and impact that these cars will have
on society, cost analysis and research on the target consumer must be conducted. Wellinformed research analysis and argument for the implementation of this technology
should be proposed. This autonomous technology will greatly impact modern society in
future years to come.
Background
Driverless cars have been an idea since the late 1800s. However, it wasnt until General
Motors Futurama in 1939 that the idea could potentially become a reality. This thought
provided by GM convinced the world that the future of automatic driving cars is possible.
In 1950 the Smart Highway was developed. GM and RCA developed automated
highway prototypes with radio control for speed and steering. Magnets in the car tracked
a steel cable embedded in the road; control towers managed overall traffic flow.
Notice how there is no steering wheel. Following
this time period, there was a transition of
autonomous car to autonomous technology for air
and space. In the 1960s, the Stanford Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory Cart was able to navigate
a dotted path on the ground along with and unfamiliar environment. This was the next big
break in automated technology. Scientists discovered that this technology could function
in space, so why not in cars well. This scientific revolution had died down till about the
1980s, when German Pioneer Ernst Dickmanns put it into a Mercedes Van. The van was
able to travel for hundreds of miles and successfully combatted different types of terrain.
Fast-forward to the early 2000s, DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects

Administration) created a competition to for dozens of teams that have worked on

autonomous vehicles. All teams involved in the competition were vying for a chance at
the 1 million dollar prize. The hope was to have the winning car design would be in full
use for the military by the year 2015. Sebastian Thrun winner of the DARPA challenge in
2005 had lost his friend in an automobile accident and that was his motivation for the
competition. After the competition had ended, he helped to co-found Googles Self
Driving Car effort. This brings us to current day, were research is still being done to
determine if whether or not this technology is the future.

Problem Section
Car accidents are the number 1 cause of death among young people. There are a
multitude of reasons for this being the case. One such reason is elderly/loss of key motor
skills. Nobody wants to say it but as people age, the brain and functions of the body start
to deteriorate. However, no person ever wants to give up his or her ability to drive. To
take that right away would be shameful and hurtful to people who are innocent and cant
help but age. Another issue that comes to play is any veteran coming back from war or
serving time. If these veterans comeback missing limbs or have any physical disability,
they would be prohibited from driving. Lastly, anyone suffering from a physical/mental
disability is not able to drive a car successfully. I say successfully because sure they
could drive but not necessarily legally and safely. There are several other modern day
issues such as traffic patterns that could be drastically changed with the implementation
of these cars. Another challenge that is preventing these cars from going full time is
sensor failure. Human brains do a masterful job of sorting and reacting to these hazards

on the fly, but the current crop of sensors just isn't equipped to process that data as
quickly(Ghose 2). This technology can only detect so much and then whos to blame
should it cause an accident? Cost is factoring in to be a big challenge for companies
trying to produce this technology as well. If it were to go into mass production, what is
the approximate cost for one of these cars?
Current Availability
The current market for these cars is slim. More research is still being conducted for the
future of this technology. However, there are a select few groups that have these cars out
in public. The Navia may be the first commercially available self-driving car. Designed
to shuttle passengers around a closed campus, its low 12mph top speed lets it make a full
stop for unexpected obstacles(Induct Technology). However, the Navia costs around
250,000 dollars. With this costly expense and the fact that it hasnt been tested on main
roads, it is highly unlikely that it would go into mass production soon. Googles selfdriving cars are still being researched and tested on. So they are not likely to be on the
market soon. However, progress is being made because there are seven driverless cars
employed by Google travelling throughout California. They are trying to expand to other
states but are having trouble mapping out all the terrain. Google maps each states terrain
individual given their state of the art GPS system.

Some Autonomous Technology

Currently, there is autonomous technology on the market, such as blind spot detectors, as
well as automatic reverse/parallel parking. Automatic headlights are another

advancement, as well as tire pressure indicators, ABS braking, and these features have
been on the market for sometime now. Lidar, is the fastest and most up to date sensor
system. LiDAR creates a 3D map of a cars environment using harmless laser beams
(Weber). LiDAR is a key feature of these self-driving cars. It has the ability to map out
and make educated decisions of the road the car is travelling on. Employees of Google
have mapped only about 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) of the 4 million miles (6.4
million km) of roadway in the United States (Shladover). However, the LiDAR system
generally maps out the rest. Google currently uses this technology on their cars. As seen
by the two images below:

The image on the left shows the sensor mounted a top the car, where as the image on the
right is a zoomed in version. A big problem is with the software these cars have. There is
a level of safety they must comply with in order to be considered street legal. These cars
have to be able to react fast enough in order to stop in the way of a pedestrian, or to avoid
a pothole. This is where the software is lacking and needs human assistance. As stated by
Shladover "There is no current process to efficiently develop safe software, With this
being said, one must consider that limited funding to certain areas prohibits this

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technology from going further. However, there are more features coming out to help
within the next several years.

Why they have not advanced further?

According to the Gerontological society of America, there are four levels of safety that
must be considered in order for these cars to be the most efficient. Each level has its own
specified requirements.
Level 1:
electronic stability control, be provided as standard equipment on any 2012 model year
or newer passenger vehicles sold in the United States. A modern day example of this is
ABS braking systems. They are designed to help slow down a car in the event of bad road
conditions.
Level 2:
While drivers cede active control of the vehicle to the automation in specific situations,
they are expected to remain the responsible authority, capable of resuming control with
no advanced warning. A modern day use of this technology is cruise control, as well
automatic windshield wipers, as well as modern day GPS systems.
Level 3:
this level of automation allows the driver to cede full control of all safety-critical
functions under certain conditions. The driver is not expected to constantly monitor the

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roadway while driving. Systems are expected to provide the driver with ample time for
transitions of control.
Level 4:
In this level automated vehicles would be able to pick a passenger up at the curb and
take her/him where s/he needs to go. It would transform business, safety, and urban
design. There would no longer be a need for taxis, designated drives, and possibly even
parking garages as car sharing could become the norm.
With all the levels being mentioned, it is important to note that these levels are part of the
reason the technology is not in full use. One could say that there should be a level 5. The
biggest issue is what would result should there be failure with this technology. How
would the human be able to take control should there be an issue? These are some
reasons why this technology has not advanced further. It has potential but further research
must be conducted and more testing must be taken into consideration.
Analysis
After carefully analyzing sources used in this paper it is important to have the following
takeaways:
1. There is much research still to be done on this material.
2. Funding is limited.
3. Is the general public ready for these cars?
4. How soon can we expect to see these cars?

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Conclusion
After a carful and thorough literature review on driverless cars, I have decided the
following:
1. Driverless cars as far along and developed as they are, there is still a lot of
work to be done. The technology still needs work.
2. Research should be continued to see what the best product is out there
currently.
3. I would also recommend that a further cost analysis be done in order to
prevent unnecessary spending.
4. I would also suggest reaching out to companies currently using these cars to
see if they will be releasing them soon.
As a final recommendation I would hope to see these cars employed in the near
future.

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References
By Matthew Claudel and Carlo Ratti. "Full Speed Ahead: How the Driverless Car Could
Transform Cities." McKinsey & Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
"How Will Driverless Cars Make Life-or-death Decisions?" PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 16
Nov. 2016.
N.p., n.d. Web.
"Where To? A History of Autonomous Vehicles." CHM Blog Where to A History of
Autonomous Vehicles Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.