We’ve been hearing about the possibility of autonomous – or driverless – vehicles for more than a decade. The wait for this much-hyped technology has been a long one, and progress at times has been slow.
Now, experts are saying you won’t see an autonomous vehicle on your neighborhood streets until at least 2035.
Tech experts say there are still many issues with programming a driverless car, such as keeping the tech up and running in inclement weather and dealing with varied and challenging topography, terrain and road surfaces. Even seemingly simple tasks for a human driver such as navigating a crowded roundabout or deciding which vehicle goes first at a four-way stop can be tricky for the tech-driven autonomous vehicle, experts contend.
Those challenges aren’t stopping a group of Indiana University students and researchers from racing into the autonomous vehicle fray full speed ahead. With their collective pedal to the metal, the newly formed and unveiled IU team is aiming to have a driverless car up and running in months, not years.
While the Indiana University-developed autonomous car might not be on the city streets immediately, the Bloomington-based research and development team hopes to have the car on a race track this spring.
IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering is teaming up with CODE19 Racing, an Indianapolis-based company that touts itself as the world’s first autonomous racing franchise, to develop the vehicle controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Professor Lantao Liu, who is leading the research at IU’s vehicle autonomy and intelligence lab in Bloomington, says the car – which will look much like an IndyCar (or it could be a NASCAR) without a cockpit or driver – will do everything a standard car can do, including accelerating and braking, navigating turns and changing lanes as well as dealing with traffic and passing other vehicles.
To achieve these goals, “we will need to develop a full stack of code,” explains Liu, a professor of intelligent systems engineering.
IU undergraduate and graduate students will be working under PhD students, breaking up into teams, with each team developing a component of the car.
Initially, the IU team hopes to race its car against other autonomous vehicles. This isn’t a totally new concept, as the Indy Autonomous Challenge launched at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2021.
The challenge, organized by Central Indiana Corporate Partnership-backed initiative Energy Systems Network, features a purse of more than $1.5 million underwritten by Lilly Endowment Inc.
The event, which drew teams from around the world including one consisting of researchers and students from Purdue University and IUPUI among others, is backed by major players in the tech industry including Cisco, Intel, Aptiv and Microsoft, along with individuals with direct ties to firms that have made major strides in autonomous technologies. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation is also a major backer of the initiative.
Event organizers and participants think the event will be critical in developing autonomous vehicles which will eventually make it to city streets and highways. And the IU team says it won’t be content with merely developing an AI-driven driverless race car. The IU team wants to race against cars with drivers as well as driverless cars on its way to helping develop a street-legal driverless vehicle.
“We want to challenge the AI limits and push the boundaries of the research for the AI driver, and the second motivation is to help bolster (AI) education at IU,” Liu states.
Michael Wollowski, a professor of computer science and software engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a noted AI expert, says simulations and even races on a track can only go so far in proving driverless vehicles can operate on city streets and highways, adding that racing on a track will allow teams to hone the strategy for machine learning, but won’t focus as much on real-world applications.
Wollowski suggests an autonomous racing challenge in rural Indiana may be more effective to proving autonomous vehicles capabilities in everyday situations.
“Imagine a rally challenge on the backroads of Indiana in the fall, when there’s dust and gravel roads and there’s obviously equipment on the road – maybe a rain shower,” he emphasizes.
The IU team is intent on racing toward whatever challenges lie ahead.
“We want to see whether an AI driver can reach the level of a human driver – or even go beyond those abilities,” Liu concludes.
Anthony Schoettle is the director of communications for the Indiana Chamber. He started with the Chamber in 2021 after a long career in journalism. He’s won multiple awards for his storytelling ability on a wide range of business topics.
