Self-driving cars.. a promising future in facing the weather

ArabiaWeather.com - Mohamed Salameh - It seems that the future of self-driving cars will be promising, as recent studies indicate the possibility of greater dependence on this type of car that does not need anyone to drive it.

In a study by the Virginia Institute of Technology Transportation, self-driving cars achieved a lower accident rate than traditional human-driven cars, and the study was conducted on cars produced by Google.

On the other hand, the auto giant (Ford) said that it had successfully tested its self-driving car in snowy conditions . Winter weather, especially snow, poses a major challenge for self-driving cars, which depend on detecting road signs through cameras or laser sensors that measure the amount of reflected light to draw an image of the road, but these sensors do not work well in similar conditions.

To solve this dilemma, Ford relied on sensors that detect the buildings and landmarks around the road and compare them instantly with high-resolution maps stored in the car's computer, and this helped the Ford car to move even in cases where a clear picture of the road was not available.

Recently demonstrated in Britain, the LUTZ Pathfinder pod is the first self-driving car to operate on public streets. It seats two passengers and has 22 sensors in total including panoramic cameras, laser imaging and radar which is used to build a virtual picture of the world around it.