Experiments have been conducted on automating driving since at least the
1920s; trials began in the 1950s. The first truly automated car was
developed in 1977, by Japan’s Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory.
The vehicle tracked white street markers, which were interpreted by two
cameras on the vehicle, using an analog computer for signal processing.
The vehicle reached speeds up to 30 kilometres per hour (19 mph), with
the support of an elevated rail.
Autonomous prototype cars appeared in the 1980s, with Carnegie Mellon
University’s Navlab and ALV projects funded by DARPA starting in 1984
and Mercedes-Benz and Bundeswehr University Munich’s EUREKA Prometheus
Project in 1987. By 1985, the ALV had demonstrated self-driving speeds
on two-lane roads of 31 kilometers per hour (19 mph) with obstacle
avoidance added in 1986 and off-road driving in day and nighttime
conditions by 1987. From the 1960s through the second DARPA Grand
Challenge in 2005, automated vehicle research in the U.S. was primarily
funded by DARPA, the US Army and the U.S. Navy yielding incremental
advances in speeds, driving competence in more complex conditions,
controls and sensor systems. Companies and research organizations have
developed prototypes.
The U.S. allocated $650 million in 1991 for research on the National
Automated Highway System, which demonstrated automated driving through a
combination of automation, embedded in the highway with automated
technology in vehicles and cooperative networking between the vehicles
and with the highway infrastructure. The program concluded with a
successful demonstration in 1997 but without clear direction or funding
to implement the system on a larger scale. Partly funded by the National
Automated Highway System and DARPA, the Carnegie Mellon University
Navlab drove 4,584 kilometers (2,848 mi) across America in 1995, 4,501
kilometers (2,797 mi) or 98% of it autonomously. Navlab’s record
achievement stood unmatched for two decades until 2015 when Delphi
improved it by piloting an Audi, augmented with Delphi technology, over
5,472 kilometers (3,400 mi) through 15 states while remaining in
self-driving mode 99% of the time. In 2015, the US states of Nevada,
Florida, California, Virginia, and Michigan, together with Washington,
D.C., allowed the testing of automated cars on public roads.
In 2017, Audi stated that its latest A8 would be automated at speeds of
up to 60 kilometres per hour (37 mph) using its “Audi AI.” The driver
would not have to do safety checks such as frequently gripping the
steering wheel. The Audi A8 was claimed to be the first production car
to reach level 3 automated driving, and Audi would be the first
manufacturer to use laser scanners in addition to cameras and ultrasonic
sensors for their system.
In November 2017, Waymo announced that it had begun testing driverless
cars without a safety driver in the driver position; however, there is
still an employee in the car. In July 2018, Waymo announced that its
test vehicles had traveled in automated mode for over 8,000,000 miles
(13,000,000 km), increasing by 1,000,000 miles (1,600,000 kilometers)
per month.