Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous Vehicles – Science Fiction to Science Fact
There are those of us, who remember a 1980s TV series where a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is able to negotiate its environment while communicating with its driver and performing a lot of other complex functions.
Previously the imaginative work of movie makers, self-driving and autonomous vehicles are fast becoming a reality. There are already a number of features found in a lot of cars such as collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control and lane departure to name a few.
Most recently a trial run was carried out by a Japanese car manufacturer in the UK. A self-navigating car successfully drove itself 230 miles on UK roads.
Autonomous Vehicles – A Definition
An autonomous vehicle is a self-driving vehicle which is designed to anticipate the unexpected, detect obstacles and navigate around its environment with little or no human input.
They have to be ‘intelligent’ enough to not only ‘see’ their environment but also to know exactly where they are going, making allowances for any changes to the planned route ahead.
For this Autonomous Vehicles require a ‘Driver’. This ‘Driver’ is a sophisticated collection of sensors, computers and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) controlled Digital Maps.
Autonomous Vehicles - Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
Autonomous Vehicles are heavily reliant on knowing it’s position, whether this is for anticipating the road layout ahead or making necessary (shortest possible) changes to changes to the route ahead.
Getting the best performance out of GNSS is achieved by using the best equipment.
Autonomous Vehicles - How can we help?
Working closely with our designers and manufacturers we are pleased to offer the most cutting-edge GNSS/Satellite System antenna and receiver technology.
