Testing Tomorrow's Self Driving Cars Today

OEM's have been whittling away at the cause of many fatalities – the human driver. Through the introduction of Advanced Driver Assist Systems manufacturers have slowly pried away several key safety functions from the driver and handed them over to the car. So, functions such as Adaptive Cruise Control and Autonomous Emergency Braking have been handed to the machine in an attempt to make our roads safer: An April 2016 Business Insider report quoted findings from KPMG that in the UK alone, self-driving cars will lead to 2,500 fewer deaths between 2014 and 2030.

But man’s obsession with the machine doesn’t end at ADAS and semi automated Level 3 and 4 vehicles, but rather the promise of a fully self-driving car controlled and taught by artificial intelligence. The immediate problem with this is that, being an immature technology, engineers, legislators and the public at large need assurance as to how safe this new tech is; and the only way to do this is through testing… extensive testing!