In the future, sensors and software will be the most useful technologies for automotive electronics

Recently, the world's largest organization of science and technology professionals, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), released a survey on the views of technical experts on the prospects of driverless cars, showing that by 2035, mass-produced cars may not have steering wheels, accelerator/brake pedals, horns and mirrors, and sensors and software will be the most useful technologies, while legal regulations and policymakers are seen as obstacles to the popularization of driverless cars. In the eyes of many researchers and young people who participated in the survey, the emergence of driverless cars will make cars simpler than the current structure.

Christoph Stiller, an IEEE member and professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, believes that driverless cars need a stable flow of road and environmental information to help them make appropriate decisions, which is called perception. Sensors are one of the most important and trusted technologies to improve field awareness. The sensor is small, non-intrusive, and provides reliable data. In addition, the relatively low cost of sensor technology has important implications for producing driverless cars that consumers can afford. With the application of sensor technology, the driverless car industry is developing at an astonishing rate. More than half (56%) of respondents believe sensor technology is the most critical of the future of driverless vehicles, followed by software (48%), advanced driver assistance systems (47%) and GPS (31%).

As more automation functions are applied to cars, the manufacturing of future cars will not require the use of today's common equipment. Most respondents believe that mirrors, horns and emergency brakes will disappear by 2030, and the accelerator/brake pedal will disappear by 2035. In addition, more than 75% of respondents said that all 50 states in the United States will pass laws allowing the use of driverless cars during this time period. 54% of experts surveyed believe that North America will be the region that will benefit the most from driverless car technology.

Even more interestingly, nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents believe that a complete global digital map will appear within the next 15 years, as it is necessary to ensure the safe driving of driverless cars on the roads. However, researchers or new humans surveyed believe that legal regulation, policymakers and consumer acceptance are the biggest obstacles to the large-scale application of driverless driving, while cost, infrastructure and technology are considered secondary obstacles.

The IEEE survey targets more than 200 researchers, industry experts, government agencies, and members of social groups in the field of unmanned driving, and the participants range from college students to more than 20 years of industry experience. The research included obstacles to large-scale adoption, core automatic control technology, and the characteristics of future cars.