Developing Truly Autonomous (and Safe) Vehicles

The push toward truly autonomous vehicles has been hindered by the cost and time associated with safety testing, but a new system developed at the University of Michigan shows that AI can reduce the testing miles required by 99.99%. It aims to enable manufacturers to more quickly verify whether their AV technology can save lives and reduce crashes. Watch this video to see what happens when vehicles trained by AI perform perilous maneuvers.

“The safety critical events—the accidents, or the near misses—are very rare in the real world, and often time AVs have difficulty handling them,” said Henry Liu , U-M professor of civil engineering and director of both Mcity and the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation, a regional transportation research center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.