Autonomous cars need to be trained to drive off-road just as hard as it looks

Autonomous driving automobiles may not be limited to highways in the future. TartanDrive is a big data set with approximately 200,000 off-road interactions that could aid future programmers in understanding physics so that vehicles can better comprehend terrain.

That has a real-world application in a fast-changing environment where infrastructure disasters can strike at any time. Carnegie Mellon University has released a paper on TartanDrive, which aims to transform the way autonomous vehicles read environments.

At the moment, a robot's approach to off-road conditions is to recognize surfaces such as 'dirt,' 'grass,' 'rocks,' and so on. However, this isn't particularly helpful in figuring out how to drive over them.

Anyone who has ever gone off-roading knows that mud comes in a variety of forms. It's one thing to recognize the type of surface, but it's far more vital to be able to respond to how it interacts with the car.

Physics is required for this. Scientists are the experts in physics, therefore researchers slid and drove a Yamaha Viking all-terrain vehicle over every surface they could find.

More than 200,000 data points were collected, which can be used to develop smarter and more responsive off-road vehicles that read the surroundings physically rather than through mapping categorization.

You might be wondering why an autonomous car would need to go off-roading, and you'd be right. But there's a reason for this, and it has nothing to do with robots taking over your neighborhood off-roading park.

Off-roading is for experienced drivers who know what they're doing, which is ideal if you're going to a park or a trail, or if you're in a situation where you'll be going off-road.

But this isn't always the case; in the event of a natural disaster, such as flooding or situations that force roads to collapse, drivers who don't have that experience may find themselves in a situation where they need it, possibly in an emergency.

If robotics improves its grasp of how to drive off-road, driver aides for certain scenarios can be improved to the point where, if an emergency worker can get to a suitable vehicle, they can safely navigate the terrain without needing to be specifically taught.

Of course, it would be great if every paramedic or first responder was a superhero, but if that isn't possible, we should at least make it easier for people to get to situations.