Skip to main content

The future of self-driving cars

From cruise control to automatic parking, all the steps to self-driving cars

Self-driving cars are one of the hottest topics in the world of tech right now, and it’s not hard to see why. For as much as people romanticize driving, it can be a monotonous, tiring activity, and even good drivers can make mistakes that end in gruesome accidents. If cars can drive themselves and use advanced tech to avoid accidents entirely, wouldn’t that be nice?

Automation isn’t a binary concept, however, it’s a spectrum, with varying degrees as humans hand over responsibilities to the machine.

How do we define a self-driving car?

The society of Automotive Engineers created an international standard for measuring the degrees of automation in cars, called J3016.

The scale runs from 0 to 5, with 0 being no automation (so, good old-fashioned cars like the Model T or ‘70s sports cars). From levels 1 to 2, the person in the driver’s seat has to, at the very least, supervise the car, even if they’re using support features to steer or maintain acceleration. For example, cruise control can keep a car going at a constant speed without the driver needing to think about maintaining speed, but the driver is still in control of the car, and

Once you get to levels 3-5, the car can drive itself (for levels 3 and 4, only under certain predetermined conditions).

SAE takes into account whether features added to a car are “driver support” features, that might make it easier to brake, but still leave the act of driving to the driver.

Levels of Automation
SAE

Level 2 cars can use cameras, ultrasonic sensors, RADAR and LIDAR to scan surroundings, then uses artificial intelligence to determine whether something is a distinct object, whether it’s a human or another car, and so on. These “self-driving” cars still are far from perfect, however, and sometimes have trouble recognizing objects.

Automation could improve shipping, making it so cross country trucker no longer need to focus on driving during the long, empty stretches of highway they spend much of their time on. Trucking companies are investing in this tech, eager to reduce the risk of costly accidents.

At level 3, the car is using “conditional automation.” At this level, the car can drive itself in many conditions, and doesn’t need the human driver to monitor, although it will, in certain conditions, request the driver take the wheel.

At level 4, the car can drive in most conditions and won’t even need the human to intervene. Level 5 is much the same, but the car can drive in basically any conditions.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Nicol
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…
Ram EV concept previews truck brand’s electric future
The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept was designed around an electric powertrain.

Electric pickup trucks are a hot trend in the auto industry, and Ram is late to the game. So the truck brand of massive automaker Stellantis needed to work hard to stand out.
Unveiled at CES 2023, the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept shows what Ram has in mind for its first production electric truck, which is scheduled to arrive in 2024. This concept version combines some features we’ve already seen on other electric trucks with a few clever new ideas. So while it may be revolutionary for the Ram brand, which is new to EVs, it’s more evolutionary when compared to other electric pickups.

Unmistakably electric
The Ram 1500 Revolution has the bulky appearance of a traditional truck, but with proportions that clearly mark it as an EV. With no need to accommodate an engine, the hood is much shorter. This allowed designers to make the cabin four inches longer than today’s internal-combustion Ram 1500 without shortening the bed, Ram claims. The grille is also smaller, although Ram compensated for this with a giant light-up logo and headlights with the same “tuning fork” elements as its current gasoline and diesel truck grilles.
The roofline is a bit lower and sleeker, which probably helps with aerodynamics, but like a traditional truck, the Revolution rolls on massive wheels and tires. The 35-inch tires are wrapped around 24-inch wheels with smooth covers and light-up elements. The charge port, meanwhile, is located in the driver’s side front fender. It makes a noise when the truck has started charging and blinks to show that charging is ongoing.
Like rival truck makers, Ram incorporated a frunk where the engine would normally be, plus the RamBox storage bins from its current trucks. Nearly every opening, including the tailgate, frunk, and charge port, is also power-operated.
Underpinning all of this power-operated convenience is the STLA Frame dedicated EV platform, one of four such platforms Stellantis plans to use for future EVs across its many brands, such as Chrysler and Jeep.

Read more
The Sony Honda Afeela car is peak CES, and I’m totally here for it
Yasuhide Mizuno, representative director, chairman and CEO of Sony Honda Mobility Inc., introduces the Afeela EV.

Everyone knew what was coming. Sitting a half-dozen rows back at the Sony press conference the afternoon before the CES show floor actually opened, you could tell by the layout of the booth — drastically different from what Sony had in previous years — that something big was going to be wheeled out.

That something, of course, was a car. It wasn't a big secret. Folks were talking about it on the bus ride to the Las Vegas Convention Center from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, where a good chunk of the work happens before the CES doors are open. Folks were talking about it — in all sorts of languages — in the long line down the hallway that separates two of the bigger halls at the LVCC. English. Japanese. Spanish. So many others. And you didn't have to actually know what they were saying to know what they were talking about.

Read more
Aska’s ludicrous SUV-sized flying car gets closer to reality at CES 2023
The Aska A5 flying car drives across a bridge with its rotor arms folded up for storage.

In a field of high-tech cars as crowded as CES 2023, it takes a lot to stand out, but the Aska A5 does one trick not even the wildest Mercedes can compete with: It flies.

On Wednesday, the Silicon Valley upstart unveiled the first fully functional prototype of the A5, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) that the company claims will hit both roads and skies in 2026. Previously, it has only demonstrated a small-scale prototype.

Read more