What are the five levels of autonomy?

Autonomous cars aren’t going away. In fact, they are one of the hottest topics in the automotive world.

There is much speculation on the timeline that relates to self-driving cars. Some manufacturers like Tesla are extremely bullish, others (even the likes of Mercedes-Benz) say the date for widespread adoption of driverless cars could be decades away.

One thing that isn’t clear to many is how the levels of autonomy are defined.

We are especially fond of the way the five levels of autonomy were described to us by the former head of BMW Australia, Marc Werner, during his stint Down Under.

Mark’s explanation is easy for all of us to understand.

This is adaptive cruise control that will bring a car to a complete stop behind another vehicle – "feet off," in Werner's own words. It's widely available on modern cars and employs the same software and hardware as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).

This "is what we launched with 7 Series," Werner explained at the launch of the current generation BMW limousine.

A level-two car is one that will steer itself, as well as brake and accelerate. It uses existing technology suites such as 'Lane Keep Assist', 'Blind Spot Monitoring' and adaptive cruise control/autonomous braking to maintain a safe distance from the car in front and hold steady in a lane on a freeway.

The car requires reduced supervision by the driver. Level two cars currently demand you hold the wheel at typically 15-30sec intervals. With level-three cars you needn't be as observant.

Plug the destination into the satellite navigation and leave the car to take you there. Pull out the smartphone to check your emails, play 'Frogger' or write your next magnum opus; none of it matters – until the car informs you that it can't cope with the drug-crazed road rager who has just sideswiped you.

"The next big step – this is what the engineers are actually working on at the moment – is called 'level three'. Level three is basically taking the eyes off the road, which is frightening, if you think about it... but it works," says Werner.

"You can do whatever you want to do…" says Werner. Autonomous technology at this level will literally permit the 'driver' to go to sleep, pass out drunk or recline the seat to reduce the blood loss on the way to hospital. But at the end of the day the car remains ultimately subordinate to a human in the driver's seat.

In essence, the level five autonomous car can be summoned across the country, driving all the way from Perth to Sydney to pick you up at the airport (?). Tesla has already predicted this will happen sooner rather than later, but hasn't explained how the car will refuel/recharge itself on such a long journey. Presumably that is one of the KPIs.

Maybe you're wondering about the reference to Isaac Asimov and his three laws of robotics mentioned at the start of this article? In 1953, Asimov wrote a short story about autonomous cars. The vehicles in his story weren't regulated by his famous robotic laws, with inevitable results. Nearly 70 years on, however, that story looks pretty fanciful, thankfully.