The rise of Tesla’s Autopilot system has brought significant attention to the safety of autonomous driving systems, both in the media and in regulatory oversight groups. The general consensus seems to be that autonomous driving systems just aren’t safe enough to be out and about on public roads yet — though that certainly hasn’t stopped Tesla fanboys from using Autopilot, fatal as it may be.
Researchers at Cornell’s Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Informational Science, along with help from Cornell’s School of Engineering, are working on three concurrent research papers that seek to provide autonomous vehicles with better “memories” for use in future navigation. Allowing a self-driving car to examine past trips could very well make future trips safer for riders and pedestrians. Some sense of object permanence would improve self-driving in inclement weather, too.
