MAPÚA UNIVERSITY

School of Civil, Environmental and Geological Engineering

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Anthony B. Medina, Jr.

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

Manila, Philippines
October 2019
Autonomous Vehicles
October 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 3

2 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................... 3

2.1 HISTORY OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES ....................................................... 3

2.2 LEVELS OF VEHICLE AUTOMATION ............................................................. 8

2.3 HOW DOES AV WORK? ................................................................................... 9

2.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES ....................................................... 10

2.4.1 Safety ........................................................................................................ 10

2.4.2 Congestion ............................................................................................... 11

2.4.3 Environment ............................................................................................. 11

3 CAN PHILIPPINES ADAPT THIS KIND OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM? ...... 11

4 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 12

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1 INTRODUCTION
The effects of technological advancement have simplified the way of human life of which
transportation is no exception. Driverless cars have long been featured in science fiction,
but with the rapid acceleration in the research and development efforts in the last decade,
autonomous vehicles will be dominating the streets in the relatively near future (Davidson
& Spinoulas, 2015). The autonomous vehicle (AV) technology will not only make daily
lifestyle much easier, but it also aims to reduce car crashes, manage energy consumption
and pollution, and increase transport accessibility.

There has been numerous companies working on AV technology which includes Google,
Uber, Tesla, Mercedes Benz, General Motors, Nissan and many others (Fagnant &
Kockelman, 2015). As all technological advancement, the effects are both positive and
negative. The strong competition has paved the way to solve and refine problems with
this technology, which need to be overcome such as societal, technical, legal and liability.

This research paper aims to provide a brief history of AV technology, address the role of
AV in the future of transport and ascertain the receptiveness of Philippines with this kind
of advanced technology.

2 BACKGROUND
2.1 HISTORY OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

In less than a century, AV technology have gone from science fiction books and films to
a road-bound reality. However, while it seems like this technology was born virtually
overnight, the path to driverless cars has been a long and winding road.

The first attempt on driverless cars started as early as 1920s (Weber, 2014). The Houdina
Radio Control demonstrated the radio-controlled 1926 Chandler (Figure 1) equipped with
transmitting antennae, which was operated by a following second car sending out radio
impulses to start its engine, shift gears and sound its horn (Dormehl & Edelstein, 2019).

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Figure 1: 1926 Chandler driving through the streets of Manhattan.

In 1939, Norman Bel Geddes designed Futurama as shown in Figure 2, an exhibit and
ride at the New York World Fair. Here Geddes presented the first self-driving electric car,
which was guided by radio-controlled electromagnetic fields generated with magnetized
metal spikes embedded in the roadway (Gringer, n.d.).

Figure 2: 1939 New York World Fair ‘Futurama’ exhibit.

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From Geddes’ concept, General Motors developed a 1958 Chevrolet (Figure 3) with a
front-end featuring pick-up coils. These coils could sense the alternating current of a wire
embedded in the road and would adjust the steering wheel accordingly (Kroger, 2016).

Figure 3: 1939 driverless Chevrolet test run by General Motors.

During the 1960s, a driverless Citroën DS19 (Figure 4) was subjected to a series of tests
by the United Kingdom’s Transport and Road Research Laboratory using magnetic
cables embedded in the road surface of the test track. This driverless car was driven with
maximum speeds up to 130 kph (80 mph) in various weather conditions without any
change in direction (Waugh, 2013).

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Figure 4: The UK RRL’s modified 1960 Citroën DS19.

The designs created up to the 1960s rely on the mechanisms embedded in roadways.
This would eventually mean construction and reconstruction of electronically controlled
streets. After much enthusiasm, this concept was scratched as redesigning roads to
include electronic railings was expensive.

This shifted the focus from cars operating on a dedicated set of tracks, and on to fully
automated cars to drive on already existing streets. Thus, extensive research on
Autonomous Land driven Vehicle (ALV) was done by United States Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the 1980s. This project demonstrated a robotic
vehicle being directed through computer vision, lidar and autonomous robotic control at
speeds of up to 31 kph (19 mph).

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Figure 5: The DARPA-funded Autonomous Land driven Vehicle (ALV) in the 1980s.

Figure 6: DARPA’s Grand Challenge in Mojave Desert.

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Furthermore, DARPA held a desert race of autonomous vehicles called the Grand
Challenge in 2004 as seen in Figure 6 above. The agency offered a $1 million prize for
any researchers from top research institutions that can build an autonomous vehicle able
to navigate 142 miles through the Mojave Desert. One can very well understand the
strategic value of such experiments for the military forces. However, none of the fifteen
(15) competitors were able to complete the course, which dealt a damaging blow to the
prospect of building real self-driving cars (Dormehl & Edelstein, 2019).

This hurdle did not stop the U.S. as after the second challenge in 2005, a Volkswagen
Touareg named Stanley emerged as the winner. The car was developed by Stanford
University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory under the supervision of Sebastian Thrun.
He was also the one who established the infamous Google’s fleet of autonomous vehicles
in 2008 (Kroger, 2016). Thus, the driverless car had become a reality.

Figure 7: The winner of 2005 DARPA’s Grand Challenge named Stanley.

2.2 LEVELS OF VEHICLE AUTOMATION

There are five (5) recognized levels of vehicle autonomy. Taken directly from the
America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, 2013), the levels of
vehicle autonomy are as follows:

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1. Level 0 (No-Automation)
 The driver is in complete and sole control of the primary vehicle controls —
brake, steering, throttle, and motive power—at all times.

2. Level 1 (Function-specific Automation)

 Automation at this level involves one or more specific control functions.
Examples include electronic stability control of those functions.

3. Level 2 (Combined Function Automation)

 This level involves automation of at least two primary control functions
designed to work in unison to relieve the driver of control of those functions.
An example of combined functions enabling a Level 2 system is adaptive
cruise control in combination with lane centering.

4. Level 3 (Limited Self-Driving Automation)

 Vehicles at this level of automation enable the driver to cede full control of
all safety-critical functions under certain traffic or environmental conditions
and in those conditions to rely heavily on the vehicle to monitor for changes
in those conditions requiring transition back to driver control. The driver is
expected to be available for occasional control, but with sufficiently
comfortable transition time. The Google car is an example of limited self-
driving automation.

5. Level 4 (Full Self-Driving Automation)

 The vehicle is designed to perform all safety-critical driving functions and
monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Such a design anticipates that
the driver will provide destination or navigation input but is not expected to
be available for control at any time during the trip. This includes both
occupied and unoccupied vehicles.

2.3 HOW DOES AV WORK?

The AVs operate under the premise of many robotic systems, which is a three-phase
design know as “sense-plan-act”. The biggest challenge for the execution of AV
technology is the dynamic and complex driving environment (Farhadi, Hoiem, & Forsyth,
2009). With this, raw data and information gathering from the surrounding environment
will be obtained with a variety of camera, sensors, radars, etc., equipped on the AV. These
data would then provide as the input for software, which would then interpret and direct
changes in acceleration, lane direction, and overtaking.

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The complexity of this challenge requires a combination of surveying technologies

(Figure 8). Typically, this includes a combination of cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasonic,
infrared, geographic positioning systems (GPS) and inertial navigation systems (INS) to
name a few (Wei, et al., 2013).

Figure 8: Google car design.

2.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The availability of transportation has been a gauge of a society’s success and prosperity.
This growth inevitably causes negative consequences such as accidents, pollution, and,
above all, human casualties. Generally, AV technology is largely anticipated to
significantly reduce—if not eliminate—many of these negative consequences.

Although, as all technological advancement, there could be substantial disadvantages

affiliated with AVs. However, there are a large number of studies conducted (Bagloee,
Tavana, Asadi, & Oliver, 2016; Kroger, 2016; Fagnant & Kockelman, 2015) which
believed that these setbacks are predominantly prevailed by the advantages.

2.4.1 Safety

The statistics for road accidents in Metro Manila in 2018 (Laurel, 2019) is shocking:
116,906 total of recorded accidents, 383 incidents with fatalities and a whopping 394

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deaths. These accidents have a cost burden on the whole system such as medical costs,
production loss, legal and court costs, and property damage. Human error such as
distracted driving, drunk driving and over speeding are blamed for eighty (80) to ninety
(90) percent of these crashes (Moneymax.ph, 2019).

Therefore, one of the aims of AV technology is to reduce—or prevent altogether—these

crashes. The downward trend of road accidents is generally due to new technologies
such as forward collision warnings, airbags dynamic stability control. These features will
be implemented in AV technology.

Some studies estimated the reduction of road accidents to be as high as one-third. This
is considering all AVs are equipped with blind spot assistance, forward collision warnings,
adaptive headlights, and lane departure warnings, which are equivalent to a Level 0 or
Level 1 vehicle automation (IIHS, 2010).

2.4.2 Congestion

An anticipated reduction of road accidents would then result to fewer delays and traffic
congestion. The idea that AVs are connected will alleviate the problem of traffic
congestion specifically at road intersections. The AV technology uses a reservation-
based system to smoothly handle much more congested traffic conditions.

Consequently, it is clear that the AV technology will have a positive effect on traffic
congestion. However, it will add a further burden to an already congested network once
the additional demand increases. The overall impact of the AV on traffic congestion has
yet to be investigated (Bagloee, Tavana, Asadi, & Oliver, 2016).

2.4.3 Environment

The decrease in traffic congestion will eventually lead to a reduction in fuel wastage and
higher travel capacity. AVs also present an opportunity to communicate the vehicle’s
maneuvers with other AVs, which in turn could reduce idle time. Additionally, the change
from fossil-based cars to electric AVs will also bring added-value to fuel efficiency.

3 CAN PHILIPPINES ADAPT THIS KIND OF

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM?
Being in a developing country with the emergence of new technology makes it possible
to adapt this kind of transportation system in the Philippines. The Philippine Government
must support emerging cities in the country to promote this kind of vehicles. Recently, the

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government is trying to develop the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac that is set to be the
host for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games on November 2019.

According to an article published by the Philippine Information Agency, a set of self-

driving cars (autonomous vehicles) is to be tested in October 2019 on the New Clark City
which will accommodate athletes and viewers for the upcoming SEA Games. The Chief
Technology Officer of COAST technology, which is the developer of AV for the upcoming
event stated that these vehicles were developed to adapt the appropriate speed of the
environment and consider the safety of pedestrians. He also added that autonomous
vehicles are not dependent on Global Position System (GPS) signals hence the capability
of these vehicles to operate in urban areas with high rise buildings, trees, and
underground tunnels will be successful.

Therefore, if the New Clark City will be successful in the operation of AV other developing
cities in the Philippines can also adapt to this kind of transportation system provided that
the design of roads, and traffic system (traffic lights, pedestrians, etc.) will be suitable for
the AV that is set to operate in the country.

4 REFERENCES
Bagloee, S. A., Tavana, M., Asadi, M., & Oliver, T. (2016, August 29). Autonomous
vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and futyre implications for transportation
policies. Retrieved from Springerlink:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40534-016-0117-3
Davidson, P., & Spinoulas, A. (2015). Autonomous Vehicles - What could this mean for
the Future of Transport? AITPM 2015 National Conference. Brisbane.
Dormehl, L., & Edelstein, S. (2019, February 3). Digital Trends. Retrieved from Sit back,
relax, and enjoy a ride through the history of self-driving cars:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/history-of-self-driving-cars-milestones/
Fagnant, D. J., & Kockelman, K. (2015). Preparing a nation for autonomous vehicles:
opportunities, barriers and policy recommendations. Transportation Research Part
A: Policy and Practice, 167-181.
Farhadi, A., Hoiem, D., & Forsyth, D. (2009). Describing objects by their attributes. IEEE
Conference on Computer vision and patter recognition (pp. 1778-1785). CVPR
2009.
Gringer, B. (n.d.). History of the Autonomous Car. Retrieved from Titlemax:
https://www.titlemax.com/resources/history-of-the-autonomous-car/
IIHS. (2010). New estimates of benefits of crash avoidance features on passenger
vehicles. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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Kroger, F. (2016). Automated Driving in Its Social, Historical and Cultural Contexts.
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Laurel, D. (2019, May 31). MMDA: Metro Manila averaged 49 road injuries, 1 fatality per
day in 2018. Retrieved from TopGear Philippines:
https://www.topgear.com.ph/news/motoring-news/mmda-mmras-2018-road-
incidents-fatalities-a962-20190531
Moneymax.ph. (2019, July 29). Top Causes of Road Accidents in the Philippines.
Retrieved from Yahoo! News: https://ph.news.yahoo.com/top-causes-road-
accidents-philippines-020031291.html
NHTSA. (2013). U.S. Department of Transportation Releases Policy on Automated
Vehicle Development. Retrieved from
http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/U.S.+Department+of+Tran
sportation+Releases+Policy+on+Automated+Vehicle+Development
Waugh, R. (2013, July 17). How the first "driverless car" was invented in Britain 1960.
Retrieved from Yahoo! News: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/how-the-first--driverless-
car--was-invented-in-britain-in-1960-
093127757.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVka
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Weber, M. (2014, May 8). Where to? A History of Autonomous Vehicles. Retrieved from
CHM Computer History Museum: https://computerhistory.org/blog/where-to-a-
history-of-autonomous-vehicles/?key=where-to-a-history-of-autonomous-vehicles
Wei, J., Snider, J., Kim, J., Dolan, J., Rajkumar, R., & Litkouhi, B. (2013). Towards a
viable autonomous driving research platform. Intelligent vehicles symposium (IV)
(pp. 763-770). IEEE 2013.

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