[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

By the time Level 4 / Level 5 Autonomous become commonplace, cars will communicate with roads / lanes through satellite GPS instead of camera and will communicate to other cars via transponders in addition to radar and LIDAR. So, a commonplace scenario could be that at Mile Marker 21, a human driven car hits a deer...Assuming the driver slammed the brakes, the transponder in that car would send out a signal telling all the cars around it “I just slammed my brakes”. Even if that car doesn’t have a transponder, if any of the cars approaching that scene slams their brakes, their transponder(s) will send a signal to other cars in the area “Hey!! I just slammed my brakes and slowed from 72 mph to 4 mph. Be aware”. So the autonomous car approaching from Mile Marker 20 has more than ample notification that “something is going on at Mile Marker 21 that will have you brake to a stop”.

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

How long would it take and how much would it cost to equip every road in America with the appropriate sensors? It does sound more practical than just the car trying as weather shuts down a lot of the technology. Also what are the costs on making the cars relatively safe from hacking?

Not sure if your road sensor question was directed to me, so I copied my last post above. The transponders that I am referring to are in other cars on the road. Even non-autonomous cars can/will have equipment on-board that facilitates V2V (vehicle to vehicle) communication. Road transponders would be V2I (vehicle to infrastructure). There will be some of that too, so that autonomous cars know the status of traffic lights, etc.

Much of this is already in place. Any vehicle with OnStar has the essence of a transponder. It just needs to be capable of saying “I slammed my brakes” and transmitting that via near field communications. Then autonomous vehicles in the area would know that at a particular point in their field of travel, a vehicle had need to brake hard. Or if a car’s traction control is activated and the transponder transmits “hey, my traction control just activated...it’s slippery out here” an AV travel nearby would get the information that there are traction issues at some point.

Should also note that many non-AVs have traffic sign recognition capability today. This is more prevalent in Europe, where signs are more constant. Cameras on the car can read stop signs, detour signs, road closed signs, speed limit signs, etc.