China Daily Global Edition (USA)
AI-driven buses no longer a distant dream
The first unmanned bus went on a road trial in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong province, on Dec 2. So, are unmanned buses the future of urban transportation? Two experts share their views on the subject with China Daily’s Zhang Zhouxiang: Excerpts follow: safety and security must be taken into serious consideration before allowing AI to take full control of a bus on a normal road. That problem may gradually subside with more AI-driven vehicles plying on normal roads.
Besides, when two humans drive too close to each other on a road and one has to slow down to avoid an accident, both could expect the other to do so, and the problem could aggravate because they cannot talk to each other. That dilemma will not arise with two AIdriven cars because the two could “talk” via the cloud and decide which one should slow down. Hence, we can hope to see cars and buses are driven by AI in the not too distant future. er be offline. It must be linked to a network so as to get updates on road condition and coordinate with other AI-driven cars and buses through cloud computing. Which means hackers can intrude into its system and control its functions.
Many cases of people hacking into the computers installed in unmanned cars have been reported. On July 24, 2015, Fiat Chrysler had to recall 1.4 million cars from the United States market, because two hackers access to their computer system in one of its cars, controlling its air conditioner, windshield wiper and brake, even its wheels.
But engineers have already managed to strengthen the protection mechanism in such cars. Essentially, AI-driven automobiles use an Internet of Things-type of technology, which links a car or a bus with data transmission. And once the entire security system of IOT is improved, AI-driven automobiles will have much better protection against hackers.
Of course, that problem deserves the greatest attention, because when it comes to a fully AI-operated car, we cannot afford to have even one single flaw lest terrorists use it to cause devastation. That problem must be solved before AI-driven cars can be universally used. And there is enough reason to believe information and communications technology experts can solve the problem, as AI-driven cars’ network security is associated with the security of the internet and IOT as a whole. Gao Sheng, an associate professor of automation studies at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication