Electric vehicles and artificial intelligence: a partnership for a cleaner, safer future

Now is an exciting time to be a technology enthusiast. If, in particular, you’re a fan of automotive technology, there’s plenty to engage your mind with the growth of electric and autonomous vehicles. Admittedly, however, it’s hard to keep track of the paths of these technologies, as they’re changing every day and taking consumers’ opinions and confidence with them. Many people are enthused about the prospect of more environmentally friendly automobiles, yet they have concerns about cost, safety, and reliability. While the prospect of self-driving cars is enticing, the current prevailing attitude toward them is cautious, if not wary.

Anxiety about any new technology is understandable, especially when that tech has the potential to harm users. High-profile headlines about electric vehicle (EV) battery fires and autonomous vehicle accidents and recalls are hard to miss – but in fact, gas-powered cars are more likely to catch fire than EVs. Fully self-driving cars are still a prospect of a more distant future, but if and when the kinks are ironed out of the technology, they have the potential to be safer than human-operated vehicles.

Meanwhile, other more well-established technologies are still causing significant danger on the roadways. Cell phones and even GPS devices are major culprits behind distracted driving, a behavior that resulted in 3,308 deaths in 2022. Taking your eyes off the road for even five seconds is extremely dangerous, and while distracted driving is not a new phenomenon, our tech-obsessed lifestyle is exacerbating the problem.

A different approach to automotive artificial intelligence

© Nauto | https://www.nauto.com

The risks of distracted driving are what led Dr. Stefan Heck to start Nauto nearly 10 years ago. A professor at Stanford University at the time, Heck began researching distracted driving statistics after several near misses with vehicles while riding his bike to campus. At the time, research into autonomous vehicles was accelerating, but Heck believed artificial intelligence (AI) could be implemented in a different way – a way that could potentially save more lives.

“I developed Nauto with a very contrarian thesis for 2015,” he says. “Now I think it’s come back into the mainstream, which is let’s not take control away from the driver, and let’s not jump straight to fully autonomous vehicles (called Level 4 or 5). Let’s actually use the sensors to make human drivers better and warn them about risks that they’re not aware of. Warn them about hidden dangers – they may have missed the stop sign, or they may not see that the light is turning red because they’re focused on something else.”

Nauto’s AI technology uses a dual-facing camera and sensors to detect drowsy and distracted driving, vehicle maneuvers, as well as risk factors outside the vehicle, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles. The computer vision also accounts for stop signs, traffic lights, and the position of road lanes. The technology monitors about 30 different risks, individually and in combination, and uses that data to alert drivers to risky situations before they escalate into a collision.

Nauto is particularly focused on commercial fleets, and its customers have seen up to 80% collision reduction with use of the technology. Over the past year the company partnered with a General Motors electric fleet subsidiary and is working with several other automotive manufacturers, including Stellantis and BMW, on their safety and EV offerings. Nauto also works closely with Nuro, which provides grocery delivery using autonomous EVs, and Kodiak, which is building autonomous trucks. While the average person considering an EV purchase may not be ready to commit to autonomous technology as well, adding AI for collision avoidance is a relatively inexpensive way to improve safety – which, aside from the obvious benefits of protecting vehicle occupants, is especially important with EVs as they’re more difficult, thus more expensive, to repair than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

“If you're going to buy an EV, you want to protect it, because if you do get into a collision, it’s going to be expensive,” Heck says. “Our system, in terms of adding AI to prevent collisions and recognize risks, is really very complementary to an EV. They work together to drive efficiency. You’re going to have a more efficient powertrain from the EV, and you’re going to have a more efficient driving style from the auto system. But then you’re getting this roughly two-thirds collision reduction on top, which will save you a lot of money.”

Any EV can be upgraded with sensing and computer vision capabilities for less than $1,000, according to Nauto. EVs, Heck points out, aren’t just traditional cars powered by electricity; they handle differently and accelerate faster, which takes some getting used to. This has actually led to higher collision rates for inexperienced EV drivers, such as those renting EVs.

Revamping the automobile for a safer society and a cleaner environment
While the invention of the automobile transformed society in many positive ways, it also created some serious problems. It’s a much more dangerous way to travel than flying, as many a nervous flier has undoubtedly been told. It’s also been a significant contributor to climate change. EVs and AI are responses to those issues, an effort to counteract the negative side effects of what was once cutting-edge technology. If you combine the two, Heck says, the positive impact doubles.

“I see them as very complementary and helping each other, because EVs remove the pollution and the emissions, and then the AI can reduce the collisions, both of which are huge sustainability benefits for society,” he says.