Self-driving vehicles, also known as autonomous or driverless vehicles, are the automotive industry’s biggest up and coming technology. These vehicles use computers and sensors to completely replace human drivers on the road. Imagine being able to drive to work - without ever having to actually drive.

While most think of these autonomous cars as being a distant technology better suited for a sci-fi movie, humanity might be closer to this reality that you’d expect. In fact, it’s just about time to stop wondering when technology will be advanced enough for these cars, and to start wondering how quickly society can adopt these machines into day-to-day life.

Did you know that Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google), has already driven over 4 million miles on public roads with its fleet of self-driving vehicles? This doesn’t even include the billions of miles that have been simulated by supercomputers in order to improve performance and safety!

How do self-driving vehicles work?

When you drive your car, you are performing many tasks all at once to get from point A to point B safely. Whether or not you realize it, you are taking in hundreds of stimuli, performing your own light-speed calculations, and making real-time decisions. Simultaneously, you could be:

Observing your speed and comparing it to the speed-limit sign you just saw

Acknowledging that the car behind you is following a little close for your comfort

Noting the distance between you and the truck in front of you

Wondering if your engine is still making that weird sound from last week

Preparing for the right turn you need to make in a mile

From this, you make a decision that you need to move into the right lane and reduce your speed. This may seem like a simple decision, but you actually just combined that list of observations with your knowledge of the rules of the road, your familiarity with how your car handles, and your past experiences in similar situations. When you put it all together, you just made quite the complex decision.

Self-driving vehicles need to be able to make that same decision - So how do they do it? The first step is gathering data. These vehicles need equipment on them that act the same as your eyes and ears do.