Believe it or not, it’s big data that actually controls self-driving vehicles. Sound a bit far-fetched to you?
Autonomous vehicles like Google’s self-driving cars that are so often talked about use a variety of traffic and environmental data to constantly analyze their position in the world. The cars are outfitted with a myriad of sensors to monitor things like their positional awareness, proximity to pedestrians or other drivers, traffic guides and signals and much more. At any given time, they are tirelessly analyzing their local surroundings, looking for telltale signs that the brakes need to be applied or that they need to prepare for deceleration.
Want to know the most amazing thing about all this? These autonomous vehicles drive much better than any human ever could or will. Self-driving vehicles never get tired or exhausted, never lose focus and always make the right decisions in a split second. Whereas humans, on the other hand, are certainly what makes the roadways less safe.
According to Google, with a record of over 1.8 million miles logged of autonomous and manual driving in their self-driving vehicles, there have only been 13 minor fender-benders recorded. More importantly, all of those accidents were the direct result of human error and not caused by the autonomous vehicles or their advanced driving systems. That is more than just impressive. Can you imagine how many lives would be saved if these things were already available to consumers and being used on our roadways?
To think, all of this is possible thanks to big data.
How Does Big Data Fit Into All of This?
Google isn’t the only company working on autonomous vehicles. In fact, there are a bunch of different brands working on their own form of the technology such as Tesla, Nissan, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Delphi Automotive, Audi and Bosch. The one thing all these different systems will have in common is big data.
According to INVENT a company dedicated to develop[ing] inter-vehicular networking, computing, and sensing technologies for next generation smart vehicles autonomous vehicles, or smart cars of the future, are nothing more than a cog in a much larger data-collection system.
“Such vehicles have embedded computers, GPS receivers, short-range wireless network interfaces, and potentially access to in-car sensors and the Internet. Furthermore, they can interact with roadside wireless sensor networks on roads where these networks are deployed,” describes the INVENT website.
In other words, the vehicles or the systems controlling them will sync up with a large network that is constantly feeding data about the local environment and roadways. They will remain aware at all times about congestion or traffic on a current route, accidents and potential dangers, arrival and departure times updated in real time and so much more.
The Interconnected Future of Vehicles and Data
As these vehicles go mainstream which many experts predict will happen sometime in the next decade big data will become increasingly more important. These vehicles will need to tap into a larger network or information database to communicate with one another about the world at large.
While this may sound like some kind of distant future scenario, its not. Were remarkably close to operating these vehicles on our roadways. A soon-to-be-announced partnership between Google and Ford just goes to show we are on the verge of this technological hurdle. The two brands will work together to create consumer-friendly autonomous vehicles for all.
California has already signed a bill into law that allows these vehicles to be used on state roads, and its only a matter of time before more locations follow suit.
Still, systems backed by the kind of technology INVENT is working on will be necessary to collect and share data with these vehicles. One strategist believes that driverless vehicle systems will create up to 1GB of data per second, which means well need a place for all of it to go.
Big data is already a central focus for a variety of industries, so it comes as no surprise that technology like driverless vehicles will make it even bigger and more necessary.
