This document discusses autonomous vehicles and their levels of autonomy from 0 to 5. It outlines the benefits of autonomous vehicles such as reduced crashes and traffic as well as drawbacks like increased costs and jobs losses. The document describes the lidar, radar, and camera autonomous architectures and their detection ranges and limitations. It compares Ford and FCA autonomous vehicle designs and relies on different sensors and platforms. The conclusion states that more research is needed to address issues like costs, phase out of gas vehicles, and legal matters before widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles.

1. Autonomous
Vehicles
By Connor Nelson

2. • Level 0 – No Automation
• Level 1 – Driver Assistance
• Level 2 – Partial Automation
• Level 3 – Conditional Automation
• Level 4 – High Automation
• Level 5 – Full Automation
Levels of Autonomy

3. Benefits
• Car crashes will be reduced
• Vehicles will get better gas mileage
• Travel time will be reduced
• Insurance and health costs will be reduced
• Traffic congestion will be reduced
• Drunk driving accident will no longer be a problem
• Police could focus on actual crimes
• After awhile, higher speed limits will be allowed

4. Drawbacks
• All vehicles would have to be autonomous
• Heavy rain and snow interferes with the lidar
• The cost of the vehicle will expensive
• freight drivers and taxi drivers will lose there job
• No legal precedent for accidents

5. Autonomous Architecture – Lidars
• 360 degrees of vision
• sends out millions of beams of light per second
• measures how long it takes for the light to return
• accuracy of ±2cm up to 60 meters
• Susceptible to heavy rain and snow

6. Autonomous Architecture – Radars and Cameras
Radars
• Placed on the corners of the vehicle
• Uses radio waves to measure distance
• Not affected by heavy weather
• Requires cooling
• Can measure up to 200 meters
• Affordable compared to lidars
Cameras
• Placed to see all around the vehicle
• Susceptible to debris on lens
• Requires cooling
• Can capture events that others can’t
• camera is capable of 84 fps
• Can capture up to 250 meters

7. Ford vs. FCA
Ford
• Relies heavily on cameras
• No trunk room
• Sedan platform
• Contracted through Roush Industries
FCA
• Relies heavily on radars
• Complex cooling
• SUV platform
• Contracted through Waymo/ Google

8. Conclusion
• NEEDS more R&D
• Price point is high
• Gasoline vehicles will be phased out
• Less accidents
• Release will take more time than expected
• Laws and lawsuits