What are the 5 Levels of Autonomous Driving?

The march towards self-driving cars is unfolding according to this model.

Brian Buntz

August 23, 2016

6 Slides
The march towards self-driving cars may already be underway

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Brian Buntz / Penton

Autonomous driving is not to an all-or-nothing affair. But in reality, automation of driving functions has a long history that has been steadily expanding for decades. The use of speed control with a centrifugal governor dates back to the 1900s and 1910s, while modern cruise control was invented in 1948. Anti-lock brakes were first used for aircraft in 1929. The growing use of automation of driving functions is also apparent in newer features like intelligent parking assist and lane keeping assist systems.

Here, we take a look at the growing use of automation and present a model that captures the transition to truly self-driving cars based on work by the U.S. government and SAE International.

About the Author

Brian Buntz

Brian is a veteran journalist with more than ten years’ experience covering an array of technologies including the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, and cybersecurity. Before coming to Penton and later Informa, he served as the editor-in-chief of UBM’s Qmed where he overhauled the brand’s news coverage and helped to grow the site’s traffic volume dramatically. He had previously held managing editor roles on the company’s medical device technology publications including European Medical Device Technology (EMDT) and Medical Device & Diagnostics Industry (MD+DI), and had served as editor-in-chief of Medical Product Manufacturing News (MPMN).

At UBM, Brian also worked closely with the company’s events group on speaker selection and direction and played an important role in cementing famed futurist Ray Kurzweil as a keynote speaker at the 2016 Medical Design & Manufacturing West event in Anaheim. An article of his was also prominently on kurzweilai.net, a website dedicated to Kurzweil’s ideas.

Multilingual, Brian has an M.A. degree in German from the University of Oklahoma.

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