Autonomous Car Software That Learns From You

A spin-out company from the University of Oxford called Oxbotica has developed new software to turn any vehicle into an autonomous vehicle. The system, called Selenium, ingests data from visual cameras, laser scanners, or radar systems, then uses a series of algorithms to establish where the vehicle is, what surrounds it, and how to move. Unlike other self-driving systems, though, Oxbotica’s software gradually acquires data about the routes along which a vehicle is driven and learns how to react by analyzing the way its human driver acts. It then only offers autonomy when it’s confident in its abilities—unlike, say, Tesla’s Autopilot, which is a pre-programmed, on-demand service. Oxbotica is already collaborating with auto manufacturers to put the system inside cars, though it sounds like they’ll be leaving at least a little of the work to the rest of us.