Behind a plain grey door in Goodwin Hall, Dr. Sidney Givigi is playing with a mini car on a mini track. Well, “playing” may not be quite right, but from the big smile on his face, it’s clear his research is tons of fun.
The associate professor of computing leads the Queen’s School of Computing’s Autonomous Robots Research Group, where part of his work involves making self-driving vehicles safer. He and his team do that by applying the lessons learned from this model autonomous vehicle – called a QCar after its maker, Quanser – and this model road, to real ones in the real world.
This kind of research will lead to more fully self-driving vehicles on public roads some day, says Dr. Givigi. And that’s good news for safety, he adds. “We can safely say that autonomous vehicles can, indeed, save lives.” For one piece of proof, he points to a 2023 U.S. study that found the self-driving vehicle Waymo had an 85 per cent lower crash rate than human-driven vehicles.
What’s the biggest hindrance to more self-driving vehicles on the streets? It’s not technological, says Dr. Givigi. “It’s developing the laws and regulations. Even if it’s a self-driving car, eventually it will get into an accident. So, who’s responsible? The owner maintaining it? The company because of a software glitch? This is a very difficult problem to solve, but it has to be figured out.”
Interesting Facts
- The QCar’s LiDAR system uses laser technology to track obstacles up to 18 metres away.
- The lithium polymer battery lasts for about 35 minutes – or three kilometres – when everything is running.
- One main camera sits atop the vehicle, while four other cameras can provide 360 degrees of vision.
- The track can be reconfigured into seven different road layouts. Each takes up between 144 and 972 square feet.
