A driverless car (sometimes called a self-driving car, an automated car or an autonomous vehicle) is a robotic vehicle that is designed to travel between destinations without a human operator. To qualify as fully autonomous, a vehicle must be able to navigate without human intervention to a predetermined destination over roads that have not been adapted for its use.
|
Computers in the carThroughout the car are various computers called electronic control units, or ECUs. Each ECU has several jobs: controlling the engine or transmission, rolling up windows, unlocking doors, and the like. These computers have sensors and switches wired in to detect variables such as temperature, pressure, voltage, acceleration at different angles, braking, yaw and roll of the vehicle, steering angle, and many other signals. When an ECU needs a signal from a sensor connected to an ECU elsewhere in the car, that's where CAN comes in. A Controller Area Network (CAN bus) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other in applications without a host computer.
Inside our Car's Computing System |