The past year has taught us to expect the unexpected. While digital meetings have gotten increased momentum, the pandemic has put most other platforms for technical development on hold. I have written before in this column about the fact that autonomous vehicles are emerging. A few years ago, there was a sort of mental setback when several companies pioneering autonomous vehicle testing said that the task was more complex than people may think and that fully autonomous vehicles were much further into the future than it may appear from the outside. Based on the stories collected for this issue, however, it is apparent that autonomous off-road vehicles like baggage tractors, drone-based surveillance systems, and vehicles in mines or construction sites are already operational. This may have several different causes. From a researcher's perspective, I would say that it is not until you start to really dig into a topic that you realize its full complexity and how little you actually know. It is therefore likely that the company representatives expressing doubt about fully autonomous vehicles a few years back were behaving just like normal Ph.D. students who generally always doubt their ability before they start to produce sensational results. It is also likely that off-road vehicles are easier to design, in that they operate in a confined area that can be better controlled and defined. This also affects the communication abilities of the vehicles. Basically, all autonomous vehicles, whether they operate off- or on-road, need to be connected. In a confined area, it is possible to deploy Wi-Fi access points enabling reliable connectivity to the autonomous vehicles, coupled with teleoperating abilities for added safety. For on-road vehicles covering a larger geographical area, another type of connectivity is needed, which requires harmonization among technology providers, vehicle manufacturers, legislation, and spectrum authorities. One show-stopper in this respect is the recent spectrum setbacks in the United States, where the entire spectrum previously reserved for dedicated short range communication (DSRC), was given away to Wi-Fi and cellular technology [1]. The spectrum authorities in Europe and Australia support a technologically agnostic approach, but the setback in the United States is also affecting these markets as it is unclear what will happen with the huge investments already made in DSRC and its European counterpart called ITS-G5. However, as I wrote in a previous column, the vehicle industry is using this peculiar time to analyze and plan ahead. To this end, Waymo is simulating how the Waymo Driver would behave if involved in a fatal crash reconstructed from statistics obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)?it turns out that autonomous vehicles avoid many accidents simply by following the traffic rules. In addition, Volvo Cars has launched a portal making different resources (such as car dashboard data, charge/fuel level, and distance traveled) available to developers and other third parties to build new services. When life gives you lemons, make simulations and share data.

中文翻译：

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自动驾驶汽车已进入越野市场 [联网和自动驾驶汽车]


过去的一年教会我们要期待意想不到的事情。尽管数字会议的势头不断增强，但疫情却导致大多数其他技术开发平台被搁置。我之前在本专栏中曾写过有关自动驾驶汽车正在兴起的事实。几年前，当几家率先进行自动驾驶汽车测试的公司表示，这项任务比人们想象的要复杂，而且完全自动驾驶汽车的未来比表面上看起来要遥远得多时，人们感到一种精神上的挫折。然而，根据本期收集的报道，行李牵引车、无人机监控系统以及矿山或建筑工地车辆等自动越野车辆显然已经投入使用。这可能有几个不同的原因。从研究人员的角度来看，我想说，直到你开始真正深入研究一个主题，你才会意识到它的全部复杂性以及你实际上知道的少之又少。因此，几年前对全自动驾驶汽车表示怀疑的公司代表的行为很可能就像正常的博士一样。学生在开始取得轰动性的成绩之前通常总是怀疑自己的能力。越野车辆也可能更容易设计，因为它们在可以更好地控制和定义的有限区域内运行。这也会影响车辆的通信能力。基本上，所有自动驾驶车辆，无论是越野行驶还是公路行驶，都需要联网。在有限区域内，可以部署 Wi-Fi 接入点，实现与自动驾驶车辆的可靠连接，并具有远程操作能力以提高安全性。 对于覆盖更大地理区域的道路车辆，需要另一种类型的连接，这需要技术提供商、车辆制造商、立法和频谱当局之间的协调。这方面的一个令人瞩目的因素是美国最近的频谱挫折，之前为专用短程通信 (DSRC) 保留的整个频谱都被放弃给 Wi-Fi 和蜂窝技术 [1]。欧洲和澳大利亚的频谱当局支持技术不可知论的方法，但美国的挫折也影响了这些市场，因为尚不清楚 DSRC 及其欧洲同行 ITS-G5 已经进行的巨额投资将会发生什么。然而，正如我在之前的专栏中所写，汽车行业正在利用这个特殊的时期来提前分析和规划。为此，Waymo 正在根据美国国家公路交通安全管理局 (NHTSA) 的统计数据重建，模拟 Waymo 驾驶员在发生致命事故时的表现。事实证明，自动驾驶汽车只需遵守交通规则就可以避免许多事故。此外，沃尔沃汽车还推出了一个门户网站，为开发商和其他第三方提供不同的资源（例如汽车仪表板数据、充电/燃油水平和行驶距离）来构建新服务。当生活给你柠檬时，进行模拟并共享数据。