Automotive News has a short and fun interview with Raj Nair (who’s LinkedIn title is “Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer — Global Product Development at Ford Motor Company”).
The write-up is mercifully concise. Here’s a highlight:
The human body is an amazing array of sensors — two great optical sensors, auditory sensors and balance sensors that provide information that the brain doesn’t only perceive but also filters.
To reproduce all of that with a combination of lidar [a kind of radar based on laser beams], radar and ultrasonic sensors is a big challenge. Then there are the algorithms. They are reasonably straightforward for the basic aspects of driving. If you can see the white lines it’s not that hard to steer the vehicle between them. But for all the other things that your mind works through when driving, you need to be prepared for all of them. This increases the level of sensor capability processing you need.
Read the whole thing.
David Silver 