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ABSTRACT
This paper presents insights into the Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and critically
discusses the applicability of Self-Driving Cars in Nigeria. Through an examination of qualitative
evidences, we explored the effectiveness and the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as
machine learning, deep learning and data mining on self-driving car research. The successful and
commercial use of self-driving/automated cars will eventually make human life easier. The paper
aims to debate/discuss the applicability of self-driving cars in Nigeria. It discussed parameters
and the key technology of a self-driving car; it surveys some countries where this system (self-
driving cars) is adopted. In this paper, the four key technologies in self-driving cars, namely: car
navigation system, path planning, environment perception and car control, are addressed. Finally,
the debates on the applicability of self-driving cars in Nigeria are discussed and the
factors/parameters that would suit its applicability in Nigeria are also discussed. It is evident from
the findings that Nigeria environment and technological supports are non-adoptable to
autonomous cars applicability presently but there are future prospects in that sector in Nigeria
due to the country market advantages in the continent of Africa.
Keywords: Automated Vehicles, Applicability, Agents and Car, Environment perception, Sensors,
Control Path Planning.
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INTRODUCTION
The possibility and applicability of self-driving cars have attracted substantial investment and
attention. Additionally, considering questions of technological opportunities and limits, we should
also, following the sociology of expectations (Borup et al., 2006), seeks to analyze how self-
driving futures are being imagined, to improve anticipatory governance (Guston, 2014) of the
technology. One way to explore such expectations and the aligning of financial and scientific
resources behind them, beyond superficial statements from self-driving vanguards (Hilgartner et
al., 2015), is to consider existing scientific publications and patent applications. Generally, the
self-driving car (Berger, 2014; Berger and Dukaczewski, 2014; Walker et al., 2001); Thrun,
(2010); Baruch, (2016); Barker et al., (2013); Litman, (2015), termed as the wheeled mobile robot,
is a kind of intelligent car, which arrives at a destination based on the information obtained from
automotive sensors, including the perception of the path environment, information of the route and
car control. The main characteristic of self-driving car is transporting people or objects to a
predetermined target without humans driving the car.
Significant improvements in the last decade have greatly advanced self-driving car technology.
These new capabilities will have profound global impacts that could markedly change society, not
to mention the significant improvements they could bring to the overall efficiency, convenience,
and safety of our roadways and transportation systems. Addressing self-driving technology-related
concerns is important, particularly given these broad potential impacts. It is on that note the
research seeks to investigate the applicability of selfless vehicles in Nigeria by extensively look at
some parameters or some factors facilitating the effective application of self-driving cars as well
as identifying some countries where this system is been adopted.
LITERARY SURVEY
The History and Politics of Self-Driving Cars
Understanding the possible futures of self-driving cars, is aided by an understanding of alternative
histories that could be told about technology. For many of the most prominent self-driving
innovators and early accounts of their prowess, the relevant history centers on robotics and
artificial intelligence. The key event for this story is the third DARPA grand challenge competition
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in 2007. According to one account “the moment… when everything changed” (Burns & Shulgan,
2018) was when a handful of teams of robot cists made machines that were able to complete a
drive around an uninhabited town. This history is told as part of a dominant “narrative of
autonomy” (Tennant & Stilgoe, 2016), but it does not represent the full story. Historians such as
Wetmore (2020) and Vinsel (2019) described how the focus on the autonomous vehicle is just the
most recent phase of a long history of self-driving innovation that, for much of the second half of
the twentieth century, concentrated on infrastructures that would enable self-driving. More
recently interest in self-driving cars, at least in the US, has downplayed or ignored questions of
infrastructure. The assumption is that investment in upgrading infrastructure is unlikely and, if
money were available, it would be too slow (Tennant & Stilgoe, 2016). The new focus has been
on making smart cars rather than smart roads. If this means a prioritization of software over
hardware, and a focus on data for artificial intelligence, this could have profound implications for
the political economy of self-driving systems, the structure of markets and the future of mobility.
The politics of transport could find itself further entangled in the politics of platform capitalism
(Pasquale, 2016). A focus on AI could crowd out alternative models and postpone or externalize
consideration of the issues raised by disruptions to current mobility patterns. This research follows
the work of Gandia et al. (2019) who mapped relevant scientific publications, and Cho et al. (2021),
who mapped patent activity around self-driving cars by proving the ground for the understanding
of antecedents, drivers and consequences of self-driving cars research and innovation.
Various efforts have been made on the automated driving system over the years. It all began in
1977 in Japan where Tsukuba Engineering laboratory developed the first semi-automated car.
Since then, various feats have been achieved in self- driving car research. Different levels of car
automation had evolved. There are levels to car automation, and it would be nice if we take a look
at the self-driving car's safety. Most times, there are 6 levels, and each level has its peculiarity.
The first level is level 0 in which all major car functions are controlled by a human. The second
level (level 1) is one in which a couple of systems, for instance, automatic braking, cruise control,
are controlled by the car. The third level of car automation involves the car performing at the same
time, not less than two functions that are automated. For instance, Steering and at the same time
accelerating. However, the input of man is still required. The fourth level entails the car managing
all safety functions which are under particular conditions. The car possesses advanced driver
assistance systems. The driver is however expected to take charge once alerted. The penultimate
level is such in which the car is completely autonomous in certain driving scenarios. The last level
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is one in which the car is able to drive itself under every circumstance. This is the level under
which the self-driving cars fall. Several carmakers are exploring the field of self- driving cars.
An automated/autonomous vehicle (AV) relies on devices and components that exchange, share
and interpret data. Interoperability of these devices and components ensures that these can form
an integrated ecosystem within the vehicle, seamlessly communicating with each other without
sacrificing performance. Autonomous vehicle (AV) testing and validation are vital for making
self-driving cars safe for humans on the road. Traditional prototype-based testing takes time and
large budgets, so engineers need to take advantage of physics-based and virtual reality (VR)
simulations. These digital tools will enable engineers to overcome the challenges of testing and
validating AV designs. As traffic can be erratic, AVs will encounter unique scenarios every day,
like a car running on the wrong side of the road. Testing will check the automated vehicles’
reaction to such unique scenarios. On-road prototypes would rarely experience these conditions,
and setting up such scenarios would be dangerous and costly. Instead, testing and validating
automated vehicles for such scenarios can be done using simulation for fast and cost-effective
results. Vehicles controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) need to be tested for every conceivable
iteration of traffic, conditions and signage. As physically testing these scenarios can be risky to
pedestrians and other vehicles, engineers can explore the autonomous vehicle domain of validity
using parameterization, simulation and virtual reality (VR). This will help run multiple
permutations in a fraction of the time for different stop-sign scenarios automatically.
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Automated Vehicles Testing Parameters
Automated vehicles need a wide array of sensors to get a clear picture of the world around them,
including cameras, lidars, radars, thermal cameras, Global Positioning System and more. Glare
can affect various sensors and hence, these are usually tested and validated under various
conditions using simulation where one or multiple sensors fail. Simulations “Safety standards for
Automated Vehicles are absolutely critical for public acceptance of the new technology,” says
Greg McGuire, associate director of M-city autonomous vehicle testing lab at university of
Michigan. “Without them, it is hard to decide whether self-driving cars are safe, and to gain public
trust. Earning that trust requires developing standards through an open process that the public can
scrutinize, and may even require government regulation.” Main aspects of testing technology are
to ensure sensors are providing correct feedback, so Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be sure to have
the correct information to process. Testing machine learning systems have become a little more
complicated. These are based on a neural network, which is nothing more than layered algorithms
with variables that are adjusted after training the system. Training involves feeding data to the
systems until we are able to arrive at a result that is within our degree of accuracy for well-known
results.
Environment testing
Researchers are building tools and techniques to generate driving conditions and issues that
maximally impact AV safety and performance. These will help find a large number of safety-
critical scenarios where errors can lead to accidents without having to enumerate all possibilities
on the road. A library of Edge cases has been developed for testing autonomous driving systems
repeatedly in augmented reality (AR)-based simulations. Data compiled from drivers operating
vehicles jam-packed with sensors helps design such custom-built simulation environments that
reflect how drivers actually react and behave on the road. This improves autonomous driving
systems’ performance with each repetition. On-road testing allows vehicles and their various parts
to be tested in real-world conditions, subjecting them to elements like weather, geography, light
or darkness, road conditions, tunnels, on-ramps, speed changes, traffic lights, infrastructure and
more. These real-world analyses can be valuable in assessing safety and performance in a
controlled manner, providing a realistic view of lifespan of the products. By combining lab and
ground testing, evaluations can provide a more complete picture to fully understand how the
durability test affects performance of the products.
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Assessing communication technologies
Safety of AVs is critical to their success in the marketplace and in society. Wireless communication
technologies offer limitless opportunities within the transportation sector. But this requires
extensive validation testing to ensure safety and performance of connected and automated vehicles.
It includes checks to ensure functionality of vehicles, their components, and their interaction with
other cars and wireless technologies such as cellphones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. There are several
other considerations to address when it comes to developing and implementing testing.
Geographical elements such as solar flares, buildings, tunnels, canyons or simply reception can
impact connection and reception of the GPS signal in an automated or connected vehicle. So, it is
important to test additional sensors and algorithms, and their ability to use data acquisition
hardware and real-time kinematic systems to track true vehicle position in these situations. For
vehicles in motion, communication will be a constant concern, as they will increasingly need to
interact with infrastructure and other smart devices. Dedicated short-range communications is a
wireless technology that allows automobiles to conduct this communication. Its components
testing includes laboratory and real-world testing to ensure their interoperability, connectivity,
security, performance and electrical safety. On-road testing allows evaluation of components
within a vehicle and tests their interaction while operating in the intended environment along with
communication established with other road-side units. Evaluation of automated systems in
automobiles needs testing of various sensing technologies like lidar, radar and cameras. Lidar
systems produce data that is highly beneficial to the automated vehicle’s algorithms. Accelerated
stress testing provides a repeatable method for improving its design robustness and eliminating
issues. It simulates real-life conditions as well as additional and elevated conditions to gather data
that helps ensure product functionality and reliability. Radar can detect objects depending on their
size, shape and material composition. So, objects may go undetected or be incorrectly identified if
they are too thin or transparent to the radar frequency or are non-conductive. It may also detect
objects wrongly if there are elevation changes, such as entrance and exit ramps, or when the road
has a sharp curve because objects have unique geometry. Most automated vehicles utilize cameras
for object detection; however, cameras function best under good lighting conditions and are less
reliable during vehicle transitions from one lighting condition to another. For example, when the
vehicle emerges from the tunnel during daytime, thus moving from dark to light, the camera may
not work as well. So, the camera needs to undergo extensive performance testing in the lab to
ensure its performance, both as a standalone device and as an integrated component within the
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vehicle’s vision system. Also, it should be tested for weather conditions, such as how it will operate
with raindrops or snow over the lens.
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continues to expand. For example, Samsung in South Korea recently acquired US infotainment
and audio company Harman, making it a Tier 1 company (Tier 1 companies supply parts to original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like BMW). Analysts expect Samsung will now play a role in
automotive telematics, infotainment, and driver-safety technology. In addition, Hyundai Motors
worked with HD maps to field self-driving cars in time for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic
Games was a success (Alvermann, 2018). The same success story was to be recorded in 2020
Tokyo Olympic Games by Japanese automakers but the event was postponed due to COVID-19
pandemic.
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the US are in flux. Autonomous vehicles have the potential to remake not only the automotive
industry, but transportation services and infrastructure requirements for cities as well.
In the US, Level 2 systems (that is, partial automation in which humans are still responsible) are
available from a number of automotive manufacturers.
• Road infrastructures
Talking about the applicability of self-driving cars in Nigeria, Nigeria road infrastructures need to
be put into serious consideration. Nigeria roads like other African countries are in a very bad shape
with many political promises to better them that never seen the light of the day. Apart from the
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roads in big cities like Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in Nigeria many others which form large
percentage of roads network in the country are in poor conditions. It is quite bad that some even
blame themselves for not putting into memory the number of potholes on a route along those roads
when driving. I find it hard to see how self-driving cars can survive under such circumstances. Still
on infrastructure, think about Nigeria traffic lights and their conditions, how can driverless cars
adequately fit in when they depend on sensors that could be based on environmental conditions?
If the self-driving car is one that depends on electricity, Nigeria ecliptic power supply cannot
guaranty effective operation of AVs in the country (Nigeria).
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*Drive-less car adoption will reduce energy consumption and pollution for environment
sustainability.
* Automated vehicles use age will increase mobility and accessibility.
*Labor cost reduction
CONCLUSION:
The wide applicability of artificial intelligence has led to the invention of automated vehicles,
which offer numerous benefits to users. Adopting these vehicles ensures road safety, saves
valuable driver time, reduces crashes and emissions, and improves mobility and accessibility.
While Europe, America, and Asia have embraced automated vehicles, African countries, including
Nigeria, lag behind due to poor infrastructure, high costs, weak legal structures, limited awareness,
criminalization, and ethical concerns. Despite the challenges, Nigeria can leverage its abundant
resources to establish local automated vehicle manufacturing companies and promote domestic
and international usage. The untapped raw materials in Ajaokuta Steel and Iron Company and the
large market size in Nigeria attract both local and foreign investors. This projection can generate
revenue, employment, and environmental sustainability.
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