Modular Autonomous Vehicles: The Future of Urban Mobility?

Modular autonomous vehicles could easily be the future of urban mobility, allowing passengers to move about city areas much more easily.

Some residents of large cities never get a driver’s license. Why is that? Many have said they have no need for one because they utilize public transportation to get wherever they need to go. Current public transportation and taxi systems could eventually transition into a modular system of autonomous vehicles that are made to help people be much more mobile and less dependent upon specified stops along the way.

What are Modular Autonomous Vehicles?

Modular is used to describe one approach to the future of self-driving vehicles. The other two approaches are End-to-End and Hybrid. The modular approach breaks down the driving into several well-defined stages, ensuring transparency and flexibility in the process.

In this approach to self-driving, each module performs a specific role in the combined functions to deliver a smooth and cohesive operation of the system. If done correctly, passengers in any autonomous vehicle shouldn’t notice any difference in the driving manners of a computerized system with a vehicle driven by a human person.

The modular system has its foundation in robotics, and it provides the foundation for early breakthroughs in self-driving vehicles. Most of the top systems utilize a modular architecture to provide a structured, organized framework to handle complex and diverse tasks including perception, route planning, and control in real-time.

What are the pros and cons of autonomous vehicles?

Regardless of the approach used to self-driving, there are some common pros and cons of autonomous driving.

Pros

• Increased Safety: Accidents are more often caused by driver fatigue, lack of attention, or incorrect behavior. In a properly programmed self-driving vehicle, accidents caused by human error will be reduced to zero.
• More Time and Comfort: An autonomous vehicle should allow you to sit back and relax while on the road. You can devote your time to other things, such as an after-work nap, reading a book, catching up with friends and family, or watching a movie.
• Increased Efficiency in Traffic: Modular autonomous vehicles should be able to communicate and coordinate with other models, which means they can improve the flow of traffic and increase road capacity, which reduces the annoying time consumed by traffic jams.
• Increased Accessibility: People who haven’t been able to go out on their own will be able to when self-driving vehicles are offered. This increased accessibility makes it easy for those who can’t drive to be able to get around much more easily.
• Parking Changes: Some autonomous vehicles should be utilized as ride-sharing models, especially those in urban environments. Instead of taking up a parking space while the first passenger is at work, the vehicle can move on to the next stop and avoid parking idly.
• Reduced Emissions: Many vehicles being tested as self-driving models are fully electric vehicles, and since they won’t be parked in the city, the double benefit is found with these new models. This should increase air quality and make the city landscape look nicer.

Cons

• Technical Development: This is where various approaches will be tested and tried to learn which is best. All autonomous vehicles process large amounts of data in real-time to accurately predict traffic and driving needs. This development is still moving slowly toward self-driving.
• Expensive: New technology is always expensive at first. You can expect modular autonomous vehicles to be too expensive for most individuals to own and operate. Still, when used as part of a ride-sharing platform, these vehicles could be extremely useful, and the cost would spread to many users.
• Security: Expect autonomous vehicles to be the target of hacker attacks and data protection issues, especially when they first make it on the scene. This is one of the most important aspects of creating vehicles that can drive on their own, but security doesn’t seem to be as important as it should be.
• Increased Passenger Car Traffic: The added accessibility of autonomous vehicles is a benefit, but it could have the negative effect of more passenger traffic on the road. This means registrations of autonomous vehicles must be controlled.

Modular autonomous vehicles is a way to describe one approach being used for self-driving cars of the future. These vehicles could make it much easier for urban populations to get where they want to go and enjoy convenient and useful transportation. Are you interested in riding around in a vehicle that doesn’t have a human driver in the driver’s seat position?