Early iterations of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) could be jittery, often disengaging without warning or struggling to accurately plan for changes in the road ahead. This is because they have relied only on vision sensors, and often just a single camera. The obvious benefit is that these single-sensor systems are relatively affordable, easy to integrate and provide an acceptable level of performance.
To take ADAS to the next level, sensors need additional context to create a better picture of the vehicle’s surrounding environment. If a highway pilot system believes a curve up ahead is gentle enough to manage—when in fact it is far tighter and requires more aggressive braking—the system could simply disengage when reaching the bend. Control would suddenly be shunted back to the driver. This is not a hypothetical situation: even recent premium cars can suffer this exact problem on a surprisingly frequent basis. Similar issues can occur with individual functions such as forward collision warnings, which can engage while parking in a tight spot or approaching oncoming traffic.
It does not create a positive user experience. For
