Artificial Intelligence in Cars: How Close Yet Far Are We from Fully Autonomous Vehicles?

In the last several years, strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have allowed for substantial developments in autonomous driving. As a result, moving to Level-4 and Level-5 autonomy in the near future is starting to look like a certain possibility. Use of AI in vehicles and, in particular, cutting-edge computer vision, signal processing and control techniques have contributed significantly to the high-tech nature of state-of-the-art Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) available in cars today. In modern automobiles, AI not only contributes substantially to systems such as ADAS, but also in the areas of vehicles’ connectivity, automotive cybersecurity, and smart road infrastructure development. The next generation driverless vehicles will be completely reliant on these technologies to transport passengers and goods from one place to other, whilst eliminating human intervention entirely. However, despite the many advancements in AI for connected and autonomous vehicles done so far, there are several issues that are responsible of holding back the wide-scale deployment of AI based autonomous vehicles on roads, which are discussed in this editorial paper. Until and unless these critical issues are addressed, it would be difficult to indicate an accurate future moment in time when autonomous vehicles will become a reality globally.