With a new year comes a myriad of STEM projects, a tradition lasting almost 8 years in Mr. Thurman’s Honors Algebra II Class. The presentations focus on many different areas in STEM from the Psychology of Serial Killers to the Stock Market.
One of these presentations details the use of artificial intelligence in cars and transportation, and how this technology will affect the future. Connor Lucido ‘24, Jack Cuezze ‘24, and Rown Gan ‘24 presented the project to their Algebra II Honors class on January 15 after months of collecting research and interviews.
Their presentation included three main parts: the technology and restraints of AI, the use of AI technology in cars on the road, and how AI has transformed the design and manufacturing process of cars around the world.
The first part of the presentation defined AI, gave the audience a clear picture of the types of AI, and how AI can learn under set parameters. “Narrow AI,” said Cuezze, “is heavily constrained and is designed to do a specific task very well,” while, “General AI is more equipped to handle a large variety of tasks with little specificity.” He also detailed the differences between supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and perhaps the most promising, reinforcement learning as a way to teach AI to alter its actions according to its environment.
The second part of the presentation explained how AI could affect a car’s overall efficiency, passenger experience, and transportation methods. Lucido explored the different methods that, in theory, could be implemented into cars, like cameras, lidars, ultrasonic sensors, and radars. To accurately read the environment of the outside world, the car uses all of these technologies in a specific hierarchy to prevent mistakes. While fully autonomous vehicles are not on the road yet, non-autonomous vehicles already use some of these technologies to help with lane changes, keep the driver attentive at the wheel, and prevent crashes.
The car would also be able to give each passenger a unique experience. Through a system called READ, cars are able to pick up passengers’ heart rate and other bodily functions to allow changes to be made to the environment. For example, if kids are in the car, the AI would change the music to something more appropriate. Autonomous driving would also make reconfiguration of the car’s interior possible, as without a driver, passenger’s could rearrange seats to face one another.
Finally, the team disclosed how AI is currently used to design and manufacture cars. With the use of AI technology, cars can be made more efficiently, preventing unnecessary waste. The cars are built by a 3D printer, which uses a metallic powder to create highly specific organic shapes. While the technology has the potential to become widespread, innovations to 3D printing techniques would also have to come in stride.
Overall the project was very successful and included a multitude of information that made the audience hopeful for the future of transportation. The dedication shown and the collaboration between teammates was admirable as well.
While there is still a long way to go into the full assimilation of AI in transportation, the team’s presentation explicitly demonstrates the reality of this possibility. Like everything, cars that run on an AI software design have pros and cons, but it would not be surprising if more of these vehicles hit the market in the near future.
