Paving the Way to Self-Driving Cars with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Recent publicity has attracted the public eye to the development of automated vehicles, especially Google’s experimental cars that have logged thousands of self-driven miles with minimal help from human drivers.

These events are truly impressive, and in the long term will help revolutionize vehicle operation and our experience of driving. But the excitement about self-driving cars can make it easy to overlook numerous short-term developments by automotive manufacturers that are equally important in transforming the act of driving. Collectively known as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), these developments are designed to make cars safer, and their gradual introduction is already improving road safety. In addition, ADAS features represent an evolution in vehicle sensing, intelligence and control that will ultimately lead to self-driving cars.