FOR MANY TEENS, driver’s education class is a rite of passage. It’s the first step toward passing a test, scoring a license, and feeling truly independent behind the wheel. If driverless vehicles catch on, will cars have to take driver’s ed too?
That’s a joke with some truth to it. Because to succeed, a driverless vehicle (or more precisely, that vehicle’s onboard computer) will need to learn all skills that, until now, only human drivers have known.
A Lot to Cover
Onboard computers have to learn the rules of the road, plus all the skill and judgement human motorists use when driving. That includes everything from accelerating and changing lanes to parking and sharing the road with bikes. Sure, computers are “smarter” than people in many ways. But this won’t be easy. If you had to write it all down, even simple driving tasks would require long, detailed instructions. Yet that’s exactly what programming a driverless car will require.
How can we do it? Think science. Most of the actions that we call “driving” are based on physics and other scientific disciplines. So, in a way, driver’s ed is really a special kind of science class—where practicing driving is the lab! And we can use what we know about science to teach vehicles to drive themselves. Let’s test how that could work, using a classic driving situation.
Brake Time
You’re driving along, and the car ahead of you comes to a sudden stop. Now you need to stop your car at a safe distance behind the other vehicle to avoid an accident. How does a human driver accomplish this? Let’s examine the two most important factors.
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の May/June 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の May/June 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.