Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

The first car was invented in 1870 by Siegfried Marcus. Actually, it was just a wagon with an engine but without a steering wheel and without brakes. Instead, it was controlled by the legs of the driver. Converting traditional vehicles into autonomous vehicles was not just one step. The first step was just 28 years after the invention of cars, that is to say 1898. This step's concept was moving a vehicle by a remote controller. Since this first step and as computers have been becoming advanced and sophisticated, many functions of modern vehicles have been converted to be entirely automatic with no need of even remote controlling. Changing gears was one of the first actions that could be done automatically without an involvement of the driver, so such cars got the title of “automatic cars”; however, nowadays there are vehicles that can completely travel by themselves although they are not yet allowed to travel on public roads in most of the world. Such vehicles are called “autonomous vehicles” or “driverless cars”.