The vehicle is advancing towards autonomy in driving. Thus, everything indicates that, in the future, autonomous vehicles will be capable of emulating human driving abilities. This is possible because these autonomous cars incorporate the components and computer systems (sensors, processors, software, and actuators) necessary to handle and control the vehicle without the need for a human driver, ensuring safety.
However, we still don't see fully autonomous cars on the roads. Nevertheless, cars capable of parking themselves are already in use, which is why the components industry and the automotive sector are progressing in the levels of autonomous driving that exist.
Different organizations have established various classifications for the levels of autonomous driving in autonomous vehicles.
The first one was developed by NHTSA, a federal agency in the United States responsible for road safety. Shortly after, in Germany, BASt, the Federal Highway Research Institute, introduced another classification, which, like the American one, included five levels of autonomy for autonomous vehicles.
A year later, in 2014, the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), an International Society of Automotive Engineers, created another classification with six levels of automation.
The OICA (International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers) developed a classification by combining BASt's and SAE's, more in line with the latter.
In this regard, of all these classifications, the SAE classification is the most general and widely accepted. In fact, in 2016, NHTSA itself abandoned its own classification in favor of using the SAE classification.
According to the SAE classification, each level of autonomy in autonomous vehicles is determined by four aspects
Thus, based on these aspects and the extent to which a human figure is necessary in autonomous vehicle driving, the SAE classification establishes six levels of autonomy in driving, ranging from 0 to 5.
According to the SAE classification, most of the cars with some level of automation today fall under Level 2, offering partial autonomy in driving. However, we are moving towards Level 3, conditional automation, which is already observed in some upcoming models that will be on the market.
In this regard, by the end of the year in Europe, Mercedes received European certification for a Level 3 autonomous driving system, which will be featured in the Mercedes S-Class and its electric version, the Mercedes EQS. However, these vehicles will only be allowed to operate on German roads because Germany is the only European country that has developed regulations for this level of autonomous driving.
Thus, automated cars are on the verge of Level 3 automation, with the expectation that fully autonomous vehicles can become a reality by 2030.
To achieve this, automotive component manufacturers are investing significant efforts in advancing connected mobility, which, along with sustainable mobility, is the future toward which component manufacturers in Spain, affiliated with Autoparts from Spain, are looking.
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