The cars of the future will drive the way we do. An Italian start-up is developing a technology that enables self-driving cars to learn different driving styles. Social Self Driving is working on an algorithm to enable this, as the demand for autonomous-driving cars s expanding year by year.
McKinsey & Company forecasts that by 2030 there will be 200 million self-driving and semi-autonomous cars all over the world. The Italian company intends to target this market, as its technology aims to help users enjoy their driving experience with automated cars.
Social Self Driving will also feature a platform where driving styles can be uploaded and sold, as well as downloaded and bought. As such, new market opportunities will be established for manufacturers and brands to boost their connections with fans and customers.
In this respect, another possibility would allow users to download the driving programs of their favorite drivers. For instance, you could try out the driving style of Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel. The company believes that such an approach would make self-autonomous cars even more desirable.
Luigi Mazzola – a former engineer at Scuderia Ferrari – is one of the founders. The technology has already been patented, while the company is seeking technical partners and investors to work with.
The system
Software and hardware units built into vehicles nowadays are the starting point. In addition to them, Social Self Driving plan to develop software that is capable of filling in data coming from visual, radar, and sonar systems detecting surrounding conditions.
Several parameters will assess the user’s driving style. Lane positioning, shifting gears, and the way the driver approaches turns are a few of these characteristics. After learning a driving style, the autonomous car will be able to reproduce it.
Users will be able to share their own driving styles too. This way, someone can also download a specific style. For instance, this platform will be able to download specific driving styles from trusted users or from driving instructors.
Improved safety
Besides the idea of making self-driving cars more desirable, Social Self Driving is also aimed at improving safety. By creating custom driving styles, cars will learn how to drive in different weather and traffic conditions. Once a vehicle has learned a driving style, the vehicle will copy it when set in autonomous or assisted driving mode. Depending on the conditions, a user will be able to choose the best one among the ones that they have in the software.
By having more control over self-driving, the safety of the driver and passengers will improve as a result. The car will apply the same driving style as the user and the driver should be able to enjoy driving more. Manufacturers could also use the platform. They could potentially upload optimised driving styles that suit their cars.
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