Autonomous Cars – based on end users’ needs.
From automation to fully autonomous cars. With its extensive knowledge of the automotive industry, Semcon has the resources and expertise to develop effective autonomous solutions, always focusing on the most important aspect – end users.
Autonomous solutions are nothing new. They are based on automation developed over more than a century of industrialisation, up to the robotics solutions of today. Autonomous vehicles are not new, either – they are based on Automotive Active Safety and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which have been in development since the 1990s. But what are new are fully autonomous vehicles involving what is known as High Autonomous Driving (HAD), correlating the SAE Autonomous Driving Scale – levels 4 and 5.
People before technology
Semcon has been working with state-of-the-art development of Active Safety and ADAS for more than a decade alongside our leading customers, which include Volvo Cars, BMW, Volvo Trucks and Autoliv/Veoneer. We have learned many key lessons over this decade and built the foundation for HAD.
The most important lesson learned is that the key to effective autonomous driving solutions doesn’t just involve technology – we also have to make sure end users and the User Experience (UX) perspective come first. Any company that understands the use case for Autonomous Solutions and is in the best position to meet end user expectations will develop the best solutions.

Making autonomous cars user-friendly
In the field of automotive development, another key lesson learned is that it is necessary to develop systems that help users, not worry or disrupt them. Real world investigations show that more than 50% of drivers actively disable key ADAS functions, life-saving systems such as Forward Collision Warning and Lane Keeping Assist.
Such situations could be avoided by developing systems with end users in mind. The fact that drivers disable these safety systems clearly demonstrates that these systems are not user-friendly. There is a lot of work to be done in respect of UX as regards autonomous solutions. We have a specialist UX department at Semcon in Göteborg that works with these kinds of issues.