Connected cars and autonomous vehicles are the future of the transportation industry.
Connected cars and autonomous vehicles are the future of the transportation industry. However, it will be a long time until the general public wholly accepts them. The wariness toward self-driving cars is not without good reason. One of the main hurdles in the worldwide implementation of connected cars and autonomous vehicles is security.
The recent survey by the American Automobile Association (AAA) showed that 3 in 4 people are wary of using self-driving vehicles. In this regard, efforts are being made to lift the distrust by enhancing the security in connected cars. The Canadian government recently invested $40m in Blackberry to enhance its QNX platform, a real-time operating system for embedded systems.
The concept of driverless vehicles has drawn much attention in the automobile market. The autonomous vehicle technology carries the vast potential for the environment and economy. However, there is a lot of work to be done in making the technology safe, secure, and reliable before the self-driving vehicles make it to the roads.
As organizations strive to keep pace with the evolving technology and regulations, they also need to build trust among consumers. The general public has to trust the technology, the benefits, and the manufacturing companies. Hence, it is imperative for them to incorporate both safety and security into their products.
Also, there needs to be a combined effort on the part of private and public sectors in forming well-defined regulations and policies. The governments need to collaborate with manufacturing organizations to enable secure adoption of autonomous vehicle technology, while also encouraging investment and innovation.
Several companies have stepped forward to develop safe software platforms to secure the future of connected cars and autonomous vehicles. The software platforms are designed to withstand security attacks and threat. They also offer a wide range of development tools and middleware for connected vehicle systems.
Connected vehicle manufacturers should not consider cybersecurity as an afterthought. It needs to be inherent in all stages of production, including design, development, and testing. The security of connected cars and autonomous vehicles need robust cybersecurity measures to counter the threat of cyberattacks.
2. LiDAR an Essential Technology for Autonomous Vehicles
Innovation is often fueled by competition, the absence of which might lead to technological stagnation. Great discoveries have always birthed discussions, and this, in turn, has facilitated the enhancement of existing technology. In the same manner, the recent discussions in the autonomous vehicle sector have been focused on the comparison between LiDAR and RADAR.
The crux of the discussion revolves around the advantages of LiDAR for autonomous vehicles. The sensor suites of current autonomous vehicles leverage cameras, radar, and LiDAR.
These sensor technologies have both benefits and drawbacks, and hence, the integration enables one technology to complement the other. Even if a vehicle has multiple camera units with superior resolution, they cannot replace climate sensors. Hence, it is imperative for vehicle manufacturers to incorporate more than one type of sensors.
Radar utilizes radio waves for detection, which enables it to measure velocities of moving objects. In comparison, the same task would require complex analysis in the case of LiDAR.
Since radar waves require less power for transmission, radar systems have been more extensively used in military applications. Also, radar systems can function regardless of the weather. However, the capabilities of radar are limited when it comes to stationary objects.
