Self-Driving Vehicles – Will Military Sector Win the Race?
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52% of casualties in combat zones can be attributed to military personnel delivering food, fuel and other logistics. Removing people from that equation with systems run on artificial intelligence could reduce injuries and deaths significantly, Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, told lawmakers at a hearing on Capitol Hill.
The United States military believes it will have self-driving vehicles before civilians partake in the mobility revolution. “We’re going to have self-driving vehicles in theater for the Army before we’ll have self-driving cars on the streets, but the core technologies will be the same,” said Griffin. The Pentagon “absolutely must leverage” what private companies are doing to develop self-driving cars, he added.
Technology and auto companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit and General Motors Co. are racing to develop autonomous vehicles to deploy in ride-hailing fleets. Uber Technologies Inc. has introduced self-driving trucks to U.S. highways on a trial basis in some locations. Beyond the technical challenge of engineering a car that can safely traverse chaotic city streets on its own, civilian self-driving developers must navigate a still-evolving legal and regulatory environment.
But the military’s autonomous vehicles won’t roam regulation-free just because they may be headed toward battlefields, according to Karlyn Stanley, a researcher and lawyer at the RAND Corp. “The regulatory structure here in the U.S. and the countries where the U.S. may be sending troops are very different,” Stanley said. “How autonomous vehicles are going to be regulated — in terms of safety, cybersecurity, privacy and liability — those are going to be critical issues” the Pentagon will have to address as well, she added.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA, which Griffin oversees, has been funding research into self-driving cars for years, according to bloomberg.com.
BAE Systems Plc, the maker of the Army’s manned Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, also makes unmanned vehicles known as the Ironclad and the Armed Robotic Combat Vehicle. The Ironclad, which looks like a miniature tank missing a gun turret, is expected to have roles in reconnaissance, evacuations of injured personnel and explosive ordnance disposal.
Offshore, the Navy is seeking help developing technology for the next generation of large and extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles to incorporate artificial intelligence so they can handle navigation hazards such as deep-draft commercial ship traffic, fishing activities, marine mammals and prospecting for oil, gas or minerals. Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. are competing on the program.
