“I'm extremely confident that level 5 (self-driving cars) or basically full autonomy will happen. And I think it will happen very quickly,” the Tesla CEO noted Elon Musk in a video message to the World Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
I remain confident that we will have basic Level 5 autonomous driving functionality this year
Step forward or desperate move?
Level 5 autonomous driving is a truly árdua engineering challenge. It means that cars can drive completely on their own without human assistance.
Level 5 self-driving vehicles can drive in all circumstances, also eliminating the need for a steering wheel and driver's seat. Sounds unbelievable, right?
It is something expected years later, some even doubt it will ever happen.
A new episode of the Elon Show
Who is right: Elon Musk or a load of independent experts? Is this just a controversial publicity stunt to grab attention?
There's a crucial reason why Level 5 autonomous driving is considered nearly impossible by so many. The lack of intuition in artificial intelligence (despite the last, incredible steps forward).
The importance of intuition in level 5 autonomous driving
A human driver can use intuition to make decisions consistently and quickly even in entirely new situations.
Example: a truck that precedes us sways slightly and approaches the traffic island? Perhaps the driver is drunk or is falling asleep: acoustic signal and observation.
How do you provide a computer with this “gift”?
In some cases cars Tesla on autopilot they encountered unusual situations (a vehicle across the road) and crashed. They are simply not able to decide for themselves.
The human brain has been trained for millions of years to make the right decision in a very short time. If we compare supercomputers to our brains, for adaptability they are simply ridiculous.
Level 5 autonomous driving: a job for technicians and psychologists
Could Musk's announcement depend on a new way of "training" algorithms? A method that brings them closer to human "decision-making" capabilities?
As mentioned, it is an arduous job, which requires training for algorithms that follows technical, but also behavioral directives: the joint work of many disciplines is needed.
All that remains is to sit back and wait: a year passes quickly, and the litmus test for autonomous driving will not be long in coming.
