Six Levels Of Autonomous Vehicles

Level 0

Level 0 is the base level. At this level, the driver is the sole decision maker for the system. The driver controls the steering wheel, throttle, brakes and all other vehicle controls.

Level 1

Level 1 is driver assistance. At this level, the vehicle supports the driver with either steering or acceleration cruise control. Drivers must stay fully engaged but they can give up some control to the autonomous system.

Level 2

Level 2 is partial automation. At this stage, the vehicle controls several functions automatically such as automatic cruise control and lane keeping. However, the driver must still perform any functions that the autonomous system does not handle.

Level 3

Level 3 is conditional automation. The vehicle drives autonomously but the driver must be ready to takeover whenever necessary.

Level 4

Level 4 is high automation. At this level, the vehicle controls all aspects of the driving experience and there is no expectation that the human driver will ever intervene. In fact, at this level, it’s possible that the vehicle might not even have a steering wheel or driver controls at all. However, at this level, the vehicle maybe restricted to certain areas fften. This is called a geofence. The vehicle can operate completely autonomously within a certain geofence, but outside of that geofence, the vehicle is either unable to operate autonomously or maybe unable to operate at all.

Level 5

Level 5, the highest level, is full automation. At this level, the vehicle operates completely
autonomously anywhere in everywhere that a human can drive. Level 5 should be automation as good or better than a human driver in all scenarios.

How a Self-Driving Car Works

Self-driving cars have five core components

• Computer Vision
• Sensor Fusion
• Localization
• Path Planning
• Control

We use computer vision and sensor fusion to get this rich picture of where we are in the world. We use localization to nail down precisely our location in that rich world. We use path planning to chart the course through the world to get us where we’d like to go and we use control to turn the steering wheel and hit the throttle and hit the brake to execute that trajectory and ultimately move the vehicle.

Hardware That You Need To Run Apollo

The major hardware components include

• Camera
• Radar
• LiDAR
• GPS-IMU
• IPC