Autonomous driving comes in many forms. Several luxury brands are starting to offer his SAE Level 3 applications. This allows human drivers to temporarily take their hands off the steering wheel and take their eyes off the road in certain situations. Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot and BMW Personal His Pilot are setting the standard in this field today. There are also a small number of completely driverless ride-hailing services, such as Waymo One, where a computer handles all driving functions. Additionally, there is also remote control, where humans remotely control vehicles on the road from a command station.
This last use case is not fully “driverless” because there is always a human behind the vehicle's operation, but the human is not in the vehicle. Instead, remote operators rely on a live visual feed of the road environment from the car's sensors to avoid dangerous blind spots. They hear the same sounds as vehicle occupants and are similarly alerted to the presence of emergency vehicles. Teledrivers typically have experience in professional driving, such as in taxis or ride-hailing services, and undergo several weeks of training. Only after receiving the certification will he be able to operate the station's control equipment and control the vehicle, which consists of a seat, steering wheel, pedals, etc.
