Dec 10, 2024 07:58 PM
Making self-driving cars safer, less accident prone
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1067779
INTRO: Self-driving cars rely on artificial intelligence to predict where nearby cars will go. But when those predictions don’t match reality, that discrepancy can potentially lead to crashes and less safe roadways.
That’s why a recent study from the University of Georgia developed a new AI model to make self-driving cars safer. This study introduces an AI model for self-driving cars, designed to predict the movement of nearby traffic and incorporate innovative features for planning safe vehicle movements.
The study used data from the I-75 freeway in Florida to predict other cars’ paths and determine the motion of the self-driving car when following another vehicle. Previous research mostly predicts surrounding traffic movements and then plans a self-driving car’s motion. This separate approach, however, makes crashes and near-misses more likely.
“That’s why we wanted to consolidate those two steps — to make the autonomous vehicle operation safer,” said Qianwen Li, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in UGA’s College of Engineering. “And as illustrated by our experiments, that approach does help with safety performance.”
To keep drivers safe, self-driving cars have to be able to accurately anticipate the movements of surrounding traffic. However, it’s difficult to know what other drivers will do on the road. “There are always differences between your prediction and the reality,” said Li. “The planned trajectory of the self-driving car may turn out to collide with the actual trajectory of another vehicle.”
The new model was designed to take prediction errors into account, as eliminating them isn’t possible... (MORE - details, no ads)
Tourism leads the pack in growing carbon emissions
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1067000
INTRO: A University of Queensland-led study shows greenhouse gas emissions from tourism have been growing more than 2 times faster than those from the rest of the global economy. Associate Professor Ya-Yen Sun from UQ’s Business School said rapid expansion in travel demand has meant carbon from tourism activities accounts for 9% of the world's total emissions.
“Without urgent interventions in the global tourism industry, we anticipate annual increases in emissions of 3 to 4% meaning they will double every 20 years,” Dr Sun said. “This does not comply with the Paris Agreement which requires the sector to reduce its emissions by more than 10% annually. The major drivers behind the increasing emissions are slow technology improvements and a rapid growth in demand.”
The study involved researchers from UQ, Griffith University, the University of Sydney and Linnaeus University (Sweden), and tracked international and domestic travel for 175 countries. It found tourism’s global carbon footprint increased from 3.7 gigatonnes (Gt) to 5.2 Gt between 2009 and 2019. The most net emissions were reported in aviation, utilities and private vehicle use for travel.
The emissions growth rate for tourism was 3.5% per annum during the decade while global emissions increased by 1.5% per annum from 50.9 Gt to 59.1 Gt. The United States, China, and India dominated the list and were responsible for 60% of the total increase in tourism emissions across the study period.
Australia ranked in the top 20 countries that together contributed three quarters of the total tourism carbon footprint in 2019. "The biggest carbon challenge in tourism is air travel," Dr Sun said.
"Reducing long-haul flights is one of the recommendations we’ve put forward to help the industry lower its emissions, along with targeted measures such as carbon dioxide taxes, carbon budgets, and alternative fuel obligations. Cutting back on marketing long-haul travel and identifying a national growth threshold would also help rein in the rapid expansion of emissions.
“At a local level, tourism operators could look to renewable electricity for accommodation, food and recreational activities and switch to electric vehicles for transport. In Australia, if businesses select an electricity plan based on renewables rather than coal, they’ll be reducing their emissions.”
Dr Sun has presented the research findings at a session on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan. Research collaborators include Dr Futu Faturay, Professor Manfred Lenzen, Professor Stefan Gössling and Professor James Higham. The research is published in Nature Communications.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1067779
INTRO: Self-driving cars rely on artificial intelligence to predict where nearby cars will go. But when those predictions don’t match reality, that discrepancy can potentially lead to crashes and less safe roadways.
That’s why a recent study from the University of Georgia developed a new AI model to make self-driving cars safer. This study introduces an AI model for self-driving cars, designed to predict the movement of nearby traffic and incorporate innovative features for planning safe vehicle movements.
The study used data from the I-75 freeway in Florida to predict other cars’ paths and determine the motion of the self-driving car when following another vehicle. Previous research mostly predicts surrounding traffic movements and then plans a self-driving car’s motion. This separate approach, however, makes crashes and near-misses more likely.
“That’s why we wanted to consolidate those two steps — to make the autonomous vehicle operation safer,” said Qianwen Li, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in UGA’s College of Engineering. “And as illustrated by our experiments, that approach does help with safety performance.”
To keep drivers safe, self-driving cars have to be able to accurately anticipate the movements of surrounding traffic. However, it’s difficult to know what other drivers will do on the road. “There are always differences between your prediction and the reality,” said Li. “The planned trajectory of the self-driving car may turn out to collide with the actual trajectory of another vehicle.”
The new model was designed to take prediction errors into account, as eliminating them isn’t possible... (MORE - details, no ads)
Tourism leads the pack in growing carbon emissions
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1067000
INTRO: A University of Queensland-led study shows greenhouse gas emissions from tourism have been growing more than 2 times faster than those from the rest of the global economy. Associate Professor Ya-Yen Sun from UQ’s Business School said rapid expansion in travel demand has meant carbon from tourism activities accounts for 9% of the world's total emissions.
“Without urgent interventions in the global tourism industry, we anticipate annual increases in emissions of 3 to 4% meaning they will double every 20 years,” Dr Sun said. “This does not comply with the Paris Agreement which requires the sector to reduce its emissions by more than 10% annually. The major drivers behind the increasing emissions are slow technology improvements and a rapid growth in demand.”
The study involved researchers from UQ, Griffith University, the University of Sydney and Linnaeus University (Sweden), and tracked international and domestic travel for 175 countries. It found tourism’s global carbon footprint increased from 3.7 gigatonnes (Gt) to 5.2 Gt between 2009 and 2019. The most net emissions were reported in aviation, utilities and private vehicle use for travel.
The emissions growth rate for tourism was 3.5% per annum during the decade while global emissions increased by 1.5% per annum from 50.9 Gt to 59.1 Gt. The United States, China, and India dominated the list and were responsible for 60% of the total increase in tourism emissions across the study period.
Australia ranked in the top 20 countries that together contributed three quarters of the total tourism carbon footprint in 2019. "The biggest carbon challenge in tourism is air travel," Dr Sun said.
"Reducing long-haul flights is one of the recommendations we’ve put forward to help the industry lower its emissions, along with targeted measures such as carbon dioxide taxes, carbon budgets, and alternative fuel obligations. Cutting back on marketing long-haul travel and identifying a national growth threshold would also help rein in the rapid expansion of emissions.
“At a local level, tourism operators could look to renewable electricity for accommodation, food and recreational activities and switch to electric vehicles for transport. In Australia, if businesses select an electricity plan based on renewables rather than coal, they’ll be reducing their emissions.”
Dr Sun has presented the research findings at a session on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan. Research collaborators include Dr Futu Faturay, Professor Manfred Lenzen, Professor Stefan Gössling and Professor James Higham. The research is published in Nature Communications.
