On Self-Driving Cars at CES 2018

Aptiv and Lyft partnered this year to bring self-driving cars to CES attendees. Passengers hail a ride from Lyft’s app like any typical person would to get them to any of the 20 different destinations across The Strip. While everyone else was trying to get a ride from the app (which was fairly difficult given that only 8 cars were out for a test), I got extremely lucky to have sneaked in a ride with a South American journalist who was kind enough to let me tag along with him. Once in the car, we were greeted by a software engineer from Aptiv and the Lyft driver who had to be there for legal and security reasons. The ride started off in manual mode and switched to autonomous driving once we hit the road.

The technology is every inch impressive as LIDAR systems and sensors are mounted on an existing BMW car and data from Vegas’ traffic lights are connected to it. The destinations were pre-programmed but how the car will handle the unpredictable traffic to get there was obviously algorithm-dependent. Aptiv is currently at Level 3 automation which means that certain aspects are autonomous like breaking and changing lanes but most critical-safety functions are left to the driver when conditions aren’t safe. Aptiv is doing massive tests in Boston but are confident that they will roll out the first self-driving vehicles to consumers in a few years.

There was nothing extraordinary in the whole ride, which I suppose should be the case. Other than seeing the steering wheels turning on its own, it felt as though it was an ordinary car cruising through Vegas’ streets. I was quite relieved to know that Aptiv has its ethics committee. The technology is ripe; and with huge players such as Ford and Toyota getting in the game, autonomous vehicles are becoming a reality each day. The public may not know it yet but self-driving cars are definitely happening and will massively change urban mobility as we know it.