Philip Burroughs, Founder of Used Car Factory, On Autonomous Cars

A recent accident involving a self-driving car striking and killing a pedestrian at night has led critics of the technology to question its capabilities at night. While the self-driving car has operated very well compared to vehicles operated by humans when looking at total number of crashes per miles driven, critics are still wary to put their lives in the hands of what amounts to a computer on wheels. This fear is now only greater for driving at night. That is why the following list of the top three ways car manufacturers need to accommodate for self driving cars at night has been created. They are, in no particular order, as follows:

• Additional Research
• Heat Sensing
• "Night Vision"

Additional Research
Additional research and development is one of the best ways to improve self driving capabilities. Because the technology is still very new, there are many iterations of it yet to be deployed on a large scale. The best way to improve it and to keep an event like this from ever happening again is to more heavily invest in it to ensure all possibilities are taken into account.

Heat Sensing
One proposed technique for self driving vehicles to be able to detect things around them would be heat sensing. This way, if an animal were in the path of the car it would have time to either slow itself down or to maneuver out of the way. Also, it would sense a human in its path because of the heat signature that someone is giving off at all times. Similarly, cars that are running give off a great deal of heat and thus it would be able to sense other cars on the road in this manner as well.

Night Vision
All car manufacturers should ensure that their vehicles are able to "see" in the daytime just as well as they are able to "see" in the nighttime. By this, it means that regardless of light conditions, cars should be able to navigate themselves between two points whether it is the middle of the day or in the pitch black of night. More importantly, one should not operate better than the other. The mechanism should be set up so that the amount of light on the car has no impact whatsoever on the quality of the autonomous vehicle.

About Philip Burroughs
Philip Burroughs is an automotive professional with decades of experience under his belt. Based in Mechanicsville, Maryland, Philip Burroughs leads a diverse and highly-skilled team to new heights of success every single day. Philip Burroughs works exceptionally hard to ensure that he and his team are offering the community the best possible deals on the best used cars.