What’s the number one question Torc’rs get asked? “When will your trucks fully reach Level 5 autonomy?” Humans like to think in the binary. Either you’re driving the vehicle, or you’re not driving the vehicle. But it is not so black and white when it comes to autonomous vehicles.
The SAE – the Society of Automotive Engineers International — has defined autonomous driving into six distinct levels. Only Level 5 is fully autonomous, to the point of theoretically being able to handle every driving situation that you could imagine, in every location in the world, without any human interaction or supervision needed.
Within the parameters of the 21st century, the software needed to create fully deployable Level 5, not to mention commercially viable vehicles, are science fiction.
Level 4, just a step under that, is reality. It is, in fact, the science versus science fiction.
What’s the difference between Level 4 autonomy and Level 5 autonomy?
The nuances between Level 5 and Level 4 are distinct and important. Understanding them is key to differentiating between the real and the fantasy.
Level 5 autonomy is where most imaginations run to when they hear “self-driving.” It is fully and completely autonomous. There is no need for a steering wheel, and all people are passengers. But that simplicity of Level 5 would require an astronomical amount of technological development, maintenance, and testing.
For a fully realized Level 5 instance, the autonomous driving system would have to navigate everywhere. Every drivable surface, from gravel roads to back-alleyways would need to be mapped and remapped. Situations that the vehicle would be able to handle would include everything from unmarked roads and new pop-up roadworks to a tornado dropping out of the clouds, as aliens land, and Godzilla starts attacking. The definition of Level 5 includes the autonomous vehicle making the right decisions in all those situations without complaint.
It is science fiction. Does that mean it will not happen? Maybe. However, Level 5 autonomous trucks are not a viable, achievable, accessible product for the 4.19 million miles of U.S. roads. And those vehicles, and that freight market, is what Torc is focused on.
Torc’s Focused Approach
Level 4, however, stays just slightly over that line of science fiction into science fact. Torc’s autonomous driving system can navigate without human intervention within environmental, route, or traffic scenario limits. The limits put on the expected or allowed performance of the trucks are defined in the system’s Operational Design Domain or (ODD). Within these factors, the autonomous truck can navigate the road ahead in defined situations. Importantly, Level 4 can be an autonomous product that can be realistically foreseen, programmed, tested, and viable. That is Level 4, a high automation drive.
We state the Whys to Level 4 Autonomous Trucking plan in our Safety Report:
