If any of you readers have ever been to Jerusalem, today the capital of the state of Israel, you will understand that what the American chipmaker Intel and Mobileye, an Israeli company that develops technologies for the detection and processing of images for the automotive, it seems like a very complex task, if not impossible.
Both companies have started the first testing phase of their joint autonomous driving project with a fleet of 100 vehicles, with the aim of demonstrating a key aspect of this type of car of the future, safety. In the coming months, the fleet will expand to the United States and other regions. “We will demonstrate,” they point out, “that our driverless cars travel from point A to point B faster, smoother and at a lower cost than a human-driven vehicle. And that it can operate in any geography and increasing safety a thousand times over a car driven by people ”.
Why Jerusalem?
In addition to being the headquarters of Mobileye, the main reason is that the capital of Israel is one of the cities with the most extreme traffic and circulation conditions, and there is no need to explain why.
The software used by autonomous cars from Intel and Mobileye has been developed using deep learning techniques in artificial intelligence, which is governed by a formal security system called ‘Responsibility Sensitive Security’ (RSS). This solution standardizes “common sense” principles of what it means to drive safely and applies them to a set of mathematical formulas and algorithms that a machine can understand. “If the software based on artificial intelligence proposes an action that violates one of these principles of common sense, the RSS system would reject the decision,” they point out at Intel.
The autonomous driving system based on artificial intelligence of the American and Israeli company wants to become the industry standard, although there is still a long way to go, and many problems to solve.
Autonomous cars from Intel and Mobileye have 360-degree vision thanks to eight cameras, although each vehicle has 12 cameras in total that provide long-range surround vision. Four cameras are used exclusively for parking. The surround vision detection system is capable of detecting other cars and pedestrians on the road, passable routes and the semantic meaning of traffic signals and lights, and creates high definition maps in real time. And it has the ability to locate an autonomous vehicle with a precision or percentage of error of just one centimeter.
Amnon Shashua, senior vice president of Intel Corporation, as well as CEO and CTO of Mobileye, points out that “Mobileye and Intel’s approach to this project is contrary to common industry practice, which is committed to excess computing needs. in the R&D phase of autonomous driving, and then try to optimize, reduce costs and energy ”. “We,” says Shashua, “are executing a more effective strategy by underwriting less computing needs to maintain a greater focus on developing more efficient algorithms for vehicle detection, driving and control.”
