A penetrating look at near-future disruption as truly autonomous vehicles arrive. For decades we have dreamed of building an automobile that can drive itself. But as that dream of autonomy draws close, we are discovering that the driverless car is a red herring. When self-driving technology infects buses, bikes, delivery vans, and even buildings…a wild, woollier, future awaits. Technology will transform life behind the wheel into a high-def video game that makes our ride safer, smoother, and more efficient. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles will turbocharge our appetite for the instant delivery of goods, making the future as much about moving things as it is about moving people. Giant corporations will link the automated machines that move us to the cloud, raising concerns about mobility monopolies and privatization of streets and sidewalks. The pace of our daily lives and the fabric of our cities and towns will change dramatically as automated vehicles reprogram the way we work, shop, and play. Ghost Road is both a beacon and a warning; it explains where we might be headed together in driverless vehicles, and the choices we must make as societies and individuals to shape that future.

The open road has always whispered promises of freedom and possibility. For generations, the steering wheel has represented the key to unlocking that freedom, the conduit connecting our dreams to the endless ribbon of asphalt. But what if the wheel became obsolete? What if a new era dawned, where cars piloted themselves, seamlessly navigating the complexities of traffic and transforming our very concept of transportation? This book is your roadmap to that driverless revolution. We'll delve into the intricate workings of self-driving car technology, exploring the sensors that perceive the world, the algorithms that chart the course, and the software that commands the wheel. We'll meet the ambitious players vying for dominance in this nascent industry, from tech giants like Google and Apple to traditional automakers like Ford and Toyota. But the journey doesn't stop there. We'll also confront the challenges that lie ahead, from technical hurdles and safety concerns to ethical dilemmas and regulatory roadblocks. We'll examine the profound impact self-driving cars will have on our lives, reshaping cities, transforming jobs, and even raising fundamental questions about who controls the road and our sense of autonomy. This book is not just about technology; it's about the future we are building together. It's an invitation to explore the possibilities, to grapple with the complexities, and to imagine a world where the open road still beckons, but the journey itself is transformed. So, buckle up, dear reader, and prepare to embark on a thrilling ride towards a driverless future. Are you ready to take the wheel, or are you ready to let go?

The technology and engineering behind autonomous driving is advancing at pace. This book presents the latest technical advances and the economic, environmental and social impact driverless cars will have on individuals and the automotive industry.

A computer beats the reigning human champion of Go, a game harder than chess. Another is composing classical music. Labs are creating life-forms from synthetic DNA. A doctor designs an artificial trachea, uses a 3D printer to produce it, and implants it and saves a child's life. Astonishing technological advances like these are arriving in increasing numbers. Scholar and entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa uses this book to alert us to dozens of them and raise important questions about what they may mean for us. Breakthroughs such as personalized genomics, self-driving vehicles, drones, and artificial intelligence could make our lives healthier, safer, and easier. But the same technologies raise the specter of a frightening, alienating future: eugenics, a jobless economy, complete loss of privacy, and ever-worsening economic inequality. As Wadhwa puts it, our choices will determine if our future is Star Trek or Mad Max. Wadhwa offers us three questions to ask about every emerging technology: Does it have the potential to benefit everyone equally? What are its risks and rewards? And does it promote autonomy or dependence? Looking at a broad array of advances in this light, he emphasizes that the future is up to us to create—that even if our hands are not on the wheel, we will decide the driverless car's destination.

The country's leading transport expert describes how the driverless vehicle revolution will transform highways, cities, workplaces and laws not just here, but across the globe. Our time at the wheel is done. Driving will become illegal, as human drivers will be demonstrably more dangerous than cars that pilot themselves. Is this an impossible future, or a revolution just around the corner? Sam Schwartz, America's most celebrated transportation guru, describes in this book the revolution in self-driving cars. The ramifications will be dramatic, and the transition will be far from seamless. It will overturn the job market for the one in seven Americans who work in the trucking industry. It will cause us to grapple with new ethical dilemmas-if a car will hit a person or a building, endangering the lives of its passengers, who will decide what it does? It will further erode our privacy, since the vehicle can relay our location at any moment. And, like every other computer-controlled device, it can be vulnerable to hacking. Right now, every major car maker here and abroad is working on bringing autonomous vehicles to consumers. The fleets are getting ready to roll and nothing will ever be the same, and this book shows us what the future has in store.

A practical guide to learning visual perception for self-driving cars for computer vision and autonomous system engineers Key FeaturesExplore the building blocks of the visual perception system in self-driving carsIdentify objects and lanes to define the boundary of driving surfaces using open-source tools like OpenCV and PythonImprove the object detection and classification capabilities of systems with the help of neural networksBook Description The visual perception capabilities of a self-driving car are powered by computer vision. The work relating to self-driving cars can be broadly classified into three components - robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. This book provides existing computer vision engineers and developers with the unique opportunity to be associated with this booming field. You will learn about computer vision, deep learning, and depth perception applied to driverless cars. The book provides a structured and thorough introduction, as making a real self-driving car is a huge cross-functional effort. As you progress, you will cover relevant cases with working code, before going on to understand how to use OpenCV, TensorFlow and Keras to analyze video streaming from car cameras. Later, you will learn how to interpret and make the most of lidars (light detection and ranging) to identify obstacles and localize your position. You’ll even be able to tackle core challenges in self-driving cars such as finding lanes, detecting pedestrian and crossing lights, performing semantic segmentation, and writing a PID controller. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the skills you need to write code for a self-driving car running in a driverless car simulator, and be able to tackle various challenges faced by autonomous car engineers. What you will learnUnderstand how to perform camera calibrationBecome well-versed with how lane detection works in self-driving cars using OpenCVExplore behavioral cloning by self-driving in a video-game simulatorGet to grips with using lidarsDiscover how to configure the controls for autonomous vehiclesUse object detection and semantic segmentation to locate lanes, cars, and pedestriansWrite a PID controller to control a self-driving car running in a simulatorWho this book is for This book is for software engineers who are interested in learning about technologies that drive the autonomous car revolution. Although basic knowledge of computer vision and Python programming is required, prior knowledge of advanced deep learning and how to use sensors (lidar) is not needed.

Take a look at the vehicle sitting in your driveway. It may be the last one you ever own. With an estimated 33 million fully autonomous cars and taxis projected to hit the road by 2040, an automotive renaissance is soon to be upon us. Personal car ownership currently costs the average medium-sized sedan owner $9,282 annually. But personal car ownership may soon be a thing of the past. The A.I.-powered machines of the future will be doing the driving for us. Autonomous vehicles will be the most disruptive technology ever deployed by mankind.