End-to-end learning for autonomous vehicles: a narrow approach

Autonomous vehicles are long promised to revolutionize our civilization. Nevertheless, it has consistently failed to meet expectations in the past two decades. Based on the fundamental difference between narrow and general artificial intelligence and equipped with the theoretical approach of sociote...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Heringer, Adauton Machado
Format: master thesis
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Repository:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:teses.usp.br:tde-19072023-053510
Online Access:https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/45/45134/tde-19072023-053510/
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Aprendizado end-to-end
Artificial general intelligence
Autonomia restrita
Autonomous vehicles
Convolutional neural networks
End-to-end learning
Imaginário sociotécnico
Inteligência artificial geral
Narrow autonomy
Redes neurais convolucionais
Sociotechnical imaginary
Veículos autônomos
Description
Summary:Autonomous vehicles are long promised to revolutionize our civilization. Nevertheless, it has consistently failed to meet expectations in the past two decades. Based on the fundamental difference between narrow and general artificial intelligence and equipped with the theoretical approach of sociotechnical imaginaries, we criticize general autonomy: the study of autonomous vehicles as envisaged by its artificially fabricated sociotechnical imaginary utopia. By contrast, we conceptualize narrow autonomy as the study of context-limited autonomous vehicles. Accordingly, we propose a narrow approach: instead of training a vehicle in a context-free environment, we set clear boundaries for the path the vehicle is supposed to drive. Using the latest advancements in end-to-end deep learning, we trained a convolutional neural network to map images and high-level commands straight to vehicle control, such as steering angle, throttle, and brake, in a simulated environment. Although this is a multidisciplinary conceptual work, our results indicate that by delimiting its path we can significantly improve performance and contribute to the advancements of autonomous technology.