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ExclusivE HONDA ONE FOcus ONE REsPONsiBiliTY 519-746-7900 www.kwhonda.com 465 CONESTOGO RD., WATERLOO Limite d Tim e Offe r Thursday, October 12, 2017 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • 7Serving your community since 1856 By Joy Struthers Chronicle Staff Members from the S e n a t e C o m m i t -tee on Transport and Communications were in Waterloo last week to learn more about autonomous vehicles and ponder the issues surrounding adopting the new technology. "We are going toward autonomous vehicles. It will happen; it's not if, it's when," said Senator Dennis Dawson, chair of the senate committee. Catching a ride in Autono- moose, the University of Waterloo's automated vehi- cle, was a new experience for Dawson. He sat in the driver's seat, but realized he had to give up control. "My first reflex was to put my foot on the brake," Dawson said. The issues around auton- omous vehicles are many -- safety, security, reliability and the infrastructure needed to support them. "One of our objectives is being sure these issues are being debated, because it's going to happen whether we like it or not," said Dawson. Professor Krzysztof Czar- necki of the electrical and computer engineering depart- ment is one of the principal investigators for their project and gave a presentation to the senators. "It's not something that's science fiction," said Czarnecki. He explained that they are building the system from scratch using existing vehicles, like the black Lincoln MKZ hybrid sedan on display at a test track. It requires complex pro- gramming software to control it. "We still have very limited capabilities," said Czarnecki. The testing involves recog- nizing objects and safety con- cerns. Cameras on the car col- lect data, which the team takes back to the lab to analyze. On the top of the car are a sensor and eight cameras that provide a 360-degree view around the vehicle. "The laser scans the envi- ronment 10 times a second and the cameras will take 10 pictures a second … so that's a lot of data," said Czarnecki. They have to keep testing and get the car on real roads with traffic and pedestrians in order to advance their work. Czarnecki said that teach- ing people to drive takes some time, so it makes sense that teaching cars to drive will as well. "We probably need anoth- er six to eight years to be able to drive in bad weather and at night, so it's not there yet," he said. These are some of the key focuses for WatCAR (Water- loo Centre for Automotive Research) driving innovation. T h e r e a r e a b o u t 3 0 researchers involved in the project right now led by two professors, and there will be nine faculty involved over a three-year period. They have two vehicles right now, but will have six by the end of the year. "We have students from mechanical engineering, elec- trical, computer science, and they work on different aspects of the system, but they are part of a team," said Czarnecki. Ross McKenzie, managing director of WatCAR, said this is an exciting opportunity. "It's a rapidly-evolving series of technologies because you are getting a combination of IT (information technology) and the traditional automotive aspect merging," said McKen- zie. He said there is a lot of interest in artificial intelli- gence (AI) and machine learn- ing and he thinks this is the first way it will become com- mercial. "There is significant demand from several fronts," said McKenzie. Senator Dawson said there would be a transition period when some people have autonomous cars, and some do not. Many will not want to give up their old cars. Also, he identified confidential- ity of the information gathered by the cars, communication between vehicles, sharing technology between compa- nies, and costs to consumers and taxpayers as potential issues they are looking into. "You shouldn't have to pay extra for things that save lives," Dawson said. Senate committee members catch a ride in Autonomoose "You shouldn't have to pay extra for things that save lives." Senator Dennis Dawson on autonomous vehicle tech 1362 VICTORIA STREET N. KITCHENER 519.742.9188 MON-FRI 9AM-9PM SATURDAY 9AM-6PM SUNDAY 11AM-5PM W W W . . C O M STARTS TODAY! 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