How Self-Driving Cars Find Their Way

Autonomous vehicles such as self-driving cars (SDCs) use sophisticated sensors and complex perception and planning algorithms to navigate in a variety of environments. The sensor systems include lidar, radar and RGB video cameras, while the algorithms include localization, object detection and tracking, and path planning. SDCs have the potential to save thousands of lives when widely deployed, but they face technical, economic and regulatory barriers. Industry is currently investing billions of dollars to develop SDC technology, and it is eager to identify technical talent. Physicists are extremely well suited to work on these technical issues, and have many opportunities to do so. I will describe the basics of SDC technology, give a brief summary of the economic and policy landscape, and highlight ways that physicists can enter this important and interesting field.