Ever since the dawn of time, man has set out to find ways of making his life easier. From the creation of tools to the mobile phone, almost every endeavour is with the goal of making a certain task more pleasurable and less taxing on the human involved.
For years we've seen the motor vehicle change and morph, making the use thereof simpler, easier and less intrusive. After all, the car is a tool in its own right, serving to transport us from one place to another - because this is easier than walking, or riding a horse.
We've seen massive advances over the last half-century in all aspects of the automotive world. The advent of ABS brakes has made vehicles safer while cruise control and automatic gearboxes have taken some of the chores out of the task.
Slowly but steadily, we're stripping away various aspects of the tasks involved with driving a car with the end goal being a completely hands-off approach to mobility, where one will climb into a 'car' and the vehicle will do all the work, including the navigation. As various companies and manufacturers work towards this goal, they start integrating certain systems into vehicles. Part of this is to test their practicality in real-world situations and another is to slowly work out the bugs and warm the public up to the idea of relinquishing control.
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This has lead to several levels of automation as predicted by those working on the systems. Here are the various levels and what they mean to the driving experience.
Level 0: Full Driver Control
Level 0 is what we all know. This is where the driver has complete control over all the controls of the vehicle. The vehicle's acceleration, braking and turning are all dependent on the physical input from the driver. The vehicle only controls engine function (fuel injection, cooling etc).
Level 1: Driver Assistance
Level 1 is the start of the autonomy process where the vehicle is able to assess the surroundings and/or manage certain aspects of vehicle control. Examples of this are Park Distance Control where the car uses sensors to alert you to the proximity of surrounding objects and Cruise Control, where the vehicle can maintain or adjust to maintain a set speed.
So commonplace is Level 1 that even a budget-friendly, R 140 000 Suzuki S-Presso has Park Distance Control.
Level 2: Partial Automation
Level 2 sees the vehicle start to control some steering inputs. This includes driver aids such as Lane Keep Assist. Auto-braking is also a Level 2 feature and often features as part of a city-stop package that can identify pedestrians and other vehicles up to a certain speed. This level still requires both hands to be on the wheel.
While certain Mercedes-Benz models offer higher levels of automation, Level 2 can be found in even their smallest A-Class offerings.
Level 3: Conditional Automation
Level 3 sees the vehicle take control under a very specific set of conditions and circumstances. On top of the safety systems such as emergency braking and Lane Keep Assist, the vehicle will track the lines on the road and monitor the traffic situation ahead of the vehicle, providing steering inputs to keep the car centred in the lane and at a safe distance from the traffic ahead. Often, Level 3 will impose speed restrictions and still requires that at least one hand is on the wheel at all times.
Such systems can be found in the very impressive Volvo range, including the XC90.
Level 4: High Automation
Taking Level 3 one step further is Level 4 that sees the vehicle assume more control. With a Level 4 system, the vehicle controls the steering, acceleration, braking and deceleration. It has the ability to monitor the entire environment surrounding the vehicle and even changes lanes. Once again, this requires ideal conditions such as free-flowing highways as traffic jams and congested intersections pose additional problems.
The BMW 5 Series is currently very close to a Level 4 system with certain functions disabled for South Africa.
Level 5: Full Automation
This is the end goal for vehicle autonomy and while not successfully implemented in a public environment yet, would allow the traveller to climb in, set a destination and allow the vehicle to control every aspect of the journey. This is an extremely data-heavy process that can require up to 4TB of data to be transferred every hour.
Companies like Google, Apple and Tesla are all working towards fully autonomous vehicles.
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