How Life on the Road Can Be Augmented by Autonomous Driving Levels 0 – 5

Autonomous driving systems are changing the way we think about the future of personal transportation. How soon will we have access to vehicles that don’t require human control? Are driver-less cars just around the corner? 

Experiments surrounding autonomous driving systems began in the 1920s, continued with trials in the 1950s, and reached a critical mass in 2013.

What is autonomous driving, anyway, and what do the different levels entail?

Level 0 — No Automation: This is the fully human level. It’s the same as when your mother taught you to drive in the parking lot of the local shopping plaza after hours. You accelerate, brake, steer, and negotiate traffic without assistance from any technological device. A car comes at you or a patch of black ice makes the car slide, and you alone must decide how to react safely.

Level 1 — Driver Assistance: You’re still the driver, and you continue to be in charge of mostly every driving function. However, you may call upon technology like adaptive cruise control for support. Adaptive cruise control uses lasers or radar to assess how close your car is to the car in front of you. Then it adjusts the throttle to maintain an appropriate or preset distance. At Level 1, a computer can control either steering or acceleration/braking, but it is not programmed to do both at the same time. At Level 1, you still have full responsibility to monitor road situations and assume all driving functions if the assistance system cannot do so for any reason.

Level 2 — Partial Automation: One assistance system is automated at Level 2. Many luxury automakers are now producing and selling Level 2 cars that can control steering and speed simultaneously, without driver interaction for short periods of time (under 1 minute, and, in some cases, seconds). These cars are the ones that can stay in lanes and hit the brakes for you. The car is able to react to warning systems, can steer, and can change how fast it’s going, but the driver still has to be doing the driving and paying attention to the road.

Level 3 — Conditional Automation: In Level 3 cars, you’re still needed as a driver, but you are able to transfer safety-critical functions to the vehicle, depending on traffic and other conditions. The system manages most of the driving and assesses what’s going on in traffic around you. The system cues you to intervene when it encounters a scenario it can’t navigate, and that’s when you take over. The key point in moving from Level 2 to Level 3 autonomy is that Level 3 expects that the user only has to intervene whenever the car is not able to handle a situation and asks for the user to take over. (Tesla’s Autopilot is considered by many to be at this level. Though, a more critical take is that it’s still at Level 2.)

Level 4 — High Automation: Moving from from Levels 3 to 4 is a significant leap. Level 4 vehicles do it all: they perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor all roadway conditions for the duration of the trip — while working in operational design domain (ODD). However, you still need to be aware while you’re traveling in the vehicle, as Level 4 does not fulfill every driving scenario. You may have to take over driving controls if certain road types or geographic areas require it. If you own your Level 4 vehicle, you may alternate involvement between active engagement and system management, such as managing all driving duties on surface streets, then becoming a passenger as the car enters a multiple lane highway.

Level 5 — Full Automation: At Level 5, the fully autonomous system is equal to you as the driver in all vehicle functions, traffic, environmental decision-making, and emergency situations. The car can operate on any road and in any conditions you as a human driver could negotiate.

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