February 27, 2018
Driverless cars are no longer a futuristic idea from a sci-fi movie. While there are few on the road today, great strides are being made to change that. IUPUI’s Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI) plays a key role when it comes to the safety of autonomous cars. TASI collaborator Dr. Stanley Chien, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been focused on an autonomous vehicle road departure prevention project for two years.
The project involves developing test procedures and a method for evaluating new road departure features of autonomous vehicles. While lines along the pavement are important markers, many roads, particularly in rural areas, do not have lines. Dr. Chien and students in the department began the project by reviewing 44,000 locations through Google Maps to determine what road boundaries are commonly seen on road sides. They concluded that metal barriers, concrete curbs, concrete dividers, and various types of grass could be additional markers.