Steering society in the right direction with autonomous vehicles

“Innovative” and “revolutionary” are adjectives commonly used to describe Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). However, as someone who has worked in industrial innovation for many years, I think another should be added - “good”. I believe AVs will power a lot of good in our society by being safer, more comfortable and less damaging to the environment than their predecessors.

That is why I, and my colleagues in the European R&D centre at Hitachi, work incredibly hard to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing the wide-spread deployment on AVs. We operate in a tough environment – European road networks are some of the hardest in the world for an AV to navigate – but we believe we can deliver social, economic and environmental value to society in a meaningful way.

By co-creating with partners we’ve managed to achieve a lot, but there is more work to be done if we are going to deliver on the promise of AVs.

Where we’ve been

Earlier this year the team completed HumanDrive, a multi-year and multi-partner project culminating in a record breaking 230-mile self-navigated journey across the UK by an autonomous Nissan LEAF vehicle. It was a landmark project that overcame the tricky road conditions of the UK. As one partner said, “If you can make an AV work in the UK then you can make it work anywhere.”

The Hitachi team developed pioneering AI technology to exploit the plethora of driving data generated from modern cars to improve the comfort and safety of future autonomous vehicles. This system not only helped to remove any bias from the neural networks used to interpret the road environment, generating a safe path for the vehicle, it also made it possible to customize and personalize the driving style to suit a user’s preference.  

In parallel, we have also successfully completed another multi-year collaborative project in continental Europe: the DENSE project. Hitachi contributed to DENSE and to future AVs by developing advanced AI-based data fusion technologies for next-generation sensors in all-weather conditions, and by specifying minimal features the AV Control Units that enable AI.

We’re proud that our work will make AVs safer, more comfortable and more enjoyable to ride in for future road users.  

Where we are now

Our work didn’t halt with the HumanDrive project, in fact it has accelerated. The team immediately turned to address two pressing challenges.

The first is making the system intelligent and modular so it can seamlessly switch between different driving conditions and environmental factors. Currently, extreme weather, particularly snow-covered roads, can inhibit the system’s ability to operate. Our previous and current work is looking to overcome this unacceptable flaw and help provide a safe system.

The second is the cost barrier of current AV sensors, an issue that is seriously inhibiting the fast and wide adoption of AVs. Our team is testing the use of a simpler, but still efficient, technology to lower cost and make AVs a mass-market proposition.

Our team will be sharing progress through a series of projects in the coming months on both challenges.

Where we are going next

We already have our sights set on what should come next for AV development, and it’s not directly related to the car itself. Improving the connectivity and intelligence of vehicles and fixed external road infrastructure, like roadside sensors, is imperative for the safe deployment of AVs on roads which have both AV and human-driven vehicles. We are starting to explore this area in more detail, as well as the area of autonomous streetcars (trams), and we hope to share progress in the future.

The destination

At Hitachi we have a mission to power good in society. It is a noble cause, and one that the team working on the development of AV technology always keeps at the front of our minds.

For more information about our work please visit innovate.hitachi.eu