4 There has been a lot of concern that the roll- out of driverless cars amounts to mere hype, and that they will not be a significant presence on public roads for another decade. That view seems to be uninformed, and is perhaps based on the slow development of regulations by local and national governments, and the expectations of consumers. Autonomous shuttles have been operating in several parts of the world for a while now, and after 4 million miles’ worth of testing, driverless taxis will start commercial operation in a US city early in 2018. Also, in 2019, Volvo will start shipping the first of 24,000 driverless cars, which have been converted from an existing electric vehicle, for taxi services around the world. GM will be doing the same that year. That is just the start. As we report in Platform One, French manufacturer Navya is to start mass production of a taxi that will have no human control and operate at full Level 5 autonomy. This focus on taxis rather than passenger cars is perhaps unexpected, but it comes from the currently high cost of the sensors, particularly Lidar, which are more acceptable in this kind of commercial application. We have highlighted that in the past, but again, as we report in this issue’s Platform One, Velodyne is reducing the cost of Lidar. The technology shows that driverless operation is not only possible but reliable. The regulations will change quickly, and driverless vehicles will be on the road far sooner than you may expect. Nick Flaherty | Technology Editor Oncoming traffic December/January 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology Intro | December/January 2018 Editorial Director Ian Bamsey Assistant Editor Guy Richards Technology Editor Nick Flaherty Contributors Peter Donaldson Rory Jackson Andrew White Technical Consultants Paul Weighell Ian Williams-Wynn Dr Donough Wilson Design Andrew Metcalfe
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