Bringing Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) to a mass market is proving somewhat more challenging than forecast say 5 years ago. We are already seeing AV segmentation between private vehicles, Mobility as a Service vehicles and commercial vehicles based on costs to add AV capabilities, vehicle size, willingness to accommodate large sensor suites and use cases. Predictions vary greatly as to when we will reach full autonomous capabilities – SAE Level 5 – given we are at Level 2 and just moving into Level 3 today.
At the heart of AVs are sensors, on board processing with AI and ML and connectivity including V2X and mobile broadband. The AI/ML processing tries to understand the data that the sensors (Cameras/Radar/LIDAR) are providing and then decides what action to take, if any. But there’s the challenge – how does the AI work, will it make the same decision twice when fed the same sensor data, how will we know? This is where Explainable AI (XAI) comes in – XAI is intended to explain how AI works along with any potential biases – XAI is vital if we are to trust the decisions made by AVs. Ethics are another consideration when assessing the AI performance – will the AI make decisions that are ethically acceptable?
Much of this plays into policy makers and the relevant standards and regulations. In the UK we are starting to see potential changes to the Highway Code so as to support some AV capabilities and last year saw the introduction of rules around Automated Lane Keeping Systems. But how do we apportion blame in the AV world when accidents happen and who pays for the repairs?
With vehicles now including complex suites of sensors, integrated chat bots and high-capacity connectivity, AVs could generate tens of terabytes of data per hour, how much stays in the vehicle compared to how much goes into the cloud has yet to be determined, but more issues could arise here as to data ownership, related to monetisation rights, security and privacy concerns.
Several points above also raise legal issues and until agreement is reached these have the potential to delay the introduction of higher-level AVs.
This event aims to look at AVs from the perspectives of XAI, emerging standards and regulations, ethics and accountability, legal aspects and data generation and ownership.
This in-person event is taking place at the historical St Catharine's College, Cambridge and will provide delegates with ample opportunities to network with fellow attendees to explore the themes of this event.
Following this event all delegates are invited to join the CW Founders' Dinner drinks reception, which is being held in the same location. The Founders' Dinner is an invitation-only event and offers business networking opportunities for Founder member organisations within the CW network.
Employees of CW member organisations can attend this event for free. You will need to be logged into your CW account to access your free ticket – log in (or reset your password here)
Tickets for non-members are £150 plus VAT. CW membership may be more cost effective for your organisation than fully priced tickets – find out more about CW membership benefits.
Sponsorship: We have limited sponsorship and display table opportunities available for these popular events so if you are interested in maximising your organisation’s profile, please contact sponsorship@cambridgewireless.co.uk for further information.
You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWTransport.
