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62 autonomous cars currently being tested by Ford have duplicate wiring for power, steering and brakes to act as back-ups. Volvo Cars, which Ford sold to Geely Automotive of China in 2010, has been working with Robert Bosch and visual computing company NVIDIA on the technology for driverless cars (see Platform One). It has been testing completely autonomous driverless cars in Gothenberg, Sweden, and in Australia, and plans to have 100 available for leasing to customers by 2017. The cloud will be a significant resource for connected cars in 2016, but it also raises key questions for security. For example, the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory will be working with the University of Surrey to look at the use of the cloud for autonomous control with secure and reliable connections with it. Communications systems security will therefore be an increasingly important challenge during 2016. “As the ecosystem continues to evolve beyond the automotive companies, the responsibility and accountability for protecting vehicles from potential cyber attacks and for preserving consumer privacy should also evolve to include all the relevant players,” says Sandy Lobenstein, vice-president of connected services and product planning at Toyota. “Technologies made possible and enabled through connectivity may get us closer to our goal of a society where cars don’t crash and there are zero traffic fatalities.” Trucks are another key development area for autonomous vehicles. Mercedes-Benz for example has already demonstrated fleets of trucks that can follow closely behind each other in a platoon and also drive independently. Radar sensors at the front of each truck are linked to the throttle and braking systems to allow the trucks to follow each other as closely as a few metres, reducing drag from the air and boosting fuel efficiency. One sensor has a range of 250 m and scans an 18 º segment, while a short-range sensor has a range of 70 m and scans a 130 º segment. There is also a stereo camera installed above the instrument panel, and it has a range of 100 m and scans an area of 45 º horizontally and 27 º vertically. This monitors both single- and two-lane roads, pedestrians, moving and stationary objects, information on traffic signs and even the road surface. The camera recognises everything that contrasts with the background, so it can measure clearances of the top and sides of the truck precisely. Conclusion 2016 will be the start of an explosion in technology for autonomous vehicles on the roads. Extensive trials and even commercial launches of systems that can be fully autonomous will depend on the regulatory environments around the world, from California to Sweden, but fully autonomous mass-transit systems will start to roll out as commercial implementations rather than long-term trials as those regulations settle down. February/March 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Insight | Unmanned ground vehicles We eventually want our vehicles to detect deteriorating conditions, decide whether to keep going and for how long Velodyne’s latest Lidar sensor, the Ultra PUCK Auto, uses a solid-state laser to scan at a range of 200 m (Courtesy of Ford) Mercedes-Benz has demonstrated trucks that can follow each other in a platoon as well as drive independently (Courtesy of Daimler)