Looks like the internal camera is to detect an unalert driver!
Bosch took us for a ride in its level 3 autonomous car
What are all these levels about?
As regular readers of our self-driving car coverage will have picked up on, autonomous cars come on a spectrum, defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. At level 0 are cars with absolutely no driver assistance at all; think something like a Caterham Seven, or maybe any car built before the advent of anti-lock brake systems (ABS). At level 1, the driver is supported by various systems like the aforementioned ABS or electronic stability control (ESC), but it's still the human's job to pay attention and actually control the car.
Level 2 comes next, in which the vehicle is capable of controlling the steering, throttle, and brakes—think adaptive cruise control and lane keeping—but again it's the human's job to maintain situational awareness. Even the most advanced semi-autonomous cars on sale today—including Tesla and its Autopilot—are level 2.
Level 3 is where things start to get really interesting. Under defined sets of conditions like being on a divided lane highway or within a well-mapped, geofenced area, the car can do it all, including monitoring its environment for other cars, hazards on the road, and so on. But the human still has to be in the loop as a fall-back in case there's a system failure or the conditions for autonomous driving come to an end (say, leaving that highway and reentering two-way traffic).
Beyond level 3 are what we think of as completely autonomous cars; you give it your destination and it takes you there with no human input. Level 4 autonomous cars will still only do that in certain use cases—again, think well-mapped geofenced areas—and level 5 is the full "go anywhere, let me just sleep or watch movies and tell me when we've arrived" robotic vehicles.
Bosch took us for a ride in its level 3 autonomous car
What are all these levels about?
As regular readers of our self-driving car coverage will have picked up on, autonomous cars come on a spectrum, defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. At level 0 are cars with absolutely no driver assistance at all; think something like a Caterham Seven, or maybe any car built before the advent of anti-lock brake systems (ABS). At level 1, the driver is supported by various systems like the aforementioned ABS or electronic stability control (ESC), but it's still the human's job to pay attention and actually control the car.
Level 2 comes next, in which the vehicle is capable of controlling the steering, throttle, and brakes—think adaptive cruise control and lane keeping—but again it's the human's job to maintain situational awareness. Even the most advanced semi-autonomous cars on sale today—including Tesla and its Autopilot—are level 2.
Level 3 is where things start to get really interesting. Under defined sets of conditions like being on a divided lane highway or within a well-mapped, geofenced area, the car can do it all, including monitoring its environment for other cars, hazards on the road, and so on. But the human still has to be in the loop as a fall-back in case there's a system failure or the conditions for autonomous driving come to an end (say, leaving that highway and reentering two-way traffic).
Beyond level 3 are what we think of as completely autonomous cars; you give it your destination and it takes you there with no human input. Level 4 autonomous cars will still only do that in certain use cases—again, think well-mapped geofenced areas—and level 5 is the full "go anywhere, let me just sleep or watch movies and tell me when we've arrived" robotic vehicles.
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