Levels of Automated Driving | iDSC043

Levels of Automated Driving - Self-Driving Tech Explained Driver assisted technologies, driverless technology, robotic cars, autonomous vehicles…  If all the different talk and types of autonomous driving has you a bit confused you’re not alone.  In this iDriveSoCal Podcast we lay out the six Automation Levels as described by the Society of Automotive Engineers and accepted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  And yes there are six levels, not five, listen to get all the details. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Automated Safety for Vehicles ***Transcript*** Recording date – March 12, 2017 Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States – Southern California. I’m Tom Smith, and in this episode we’re talking about automated driving.  Specifically we’re going to identify the different levels of automated driving. But before we can do that we need to frame the rather complex issue. We hear a lot about driver assisted technology, driverless technologies, robotic cars and the like. Personally, I get excited about it all of it and can’t wait for it to get here. But the reality is that some automated driving technology – depending on how you look at it, a lot of it actually – is already here. The topic can be confusing because of the definition of the different levels of automation that fall under the umbrella of quote-unquote “automated driving.” The topic can also be confusing because there’s many different major industries and organizations dealing with it. And they all have skin in the game so to speak. First you have the for profit companies that want to bring automated driving technology to you and me – the consumers. That includes: Traditional automotive manufacturers like General Motors. Newcomers to automotive manufacturing like Tesla. But then also, technology companies like Google’s self-driving arm Waymo and Uber. Then there’s the existing Federal government agencies that need to keep us safe by managing their current domains but still accepting, if not embracing, the future. These entities include: NHTSA – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And the NTSB – The National Transportation Safety Board. Both of these organizations were on the scene to investigate a Tesla crash here in LA just a few weeks back. And then we have the different states in the US deciding what they’re going to allow and not allow.  And that’s even been an issue just from a perspective of testing technology that would ventually be implemented. For example; Arizona has become the beneficiary of companies moving there to test automated driving tech that California has wanted to move more slowly in allowing. And let’s not forget groups like Consumer Watchdog who we spoke with a couple weeks ago.  They’re basically saying – hey this all is great but let’s proceed with caution because this is a very big hairy issue. I might be forgetting something or some-group but you get the point.  The topic of automated driving is big.  There’s a great deal at stake for powerful groups.  And because of that it’s been, and will probably continue to be, quite a fluid situation. With all of that in mind there’s one more important group to mention – the Society of Automotive Engineers. You’re probably aware of them, and have been for a long time, you just don’t know it. They usually go by their acronym – SAE. You’ve seen that around various automotive documentation haven’t ...