Energy density in autonomous vehicles
Autonomous vehicles, which are largely electric, benefit many industries, organizations, and people. These vehicles have great potential for cost savings, safety improvements, and more efficiency, especially when they become fully autonomous. The energy density of an autonomous vehicle’s battery improves those benefits if the right technology is used.
What are autonomous vehicles?
You might know an autonomous vehicle as, simply put, a self-driving vehicle. These vehicles — which can be anything from a small passenger car to a larger heavy goods transport vehicle — do not require a human to control them. The vehicles sense the environment around them, and respond accordingly.
There are presently several different levels of driving automation. On one end of the range, the human passenger monitors the driving environment. The vehicle may offer driver assistance, such as cruise control, or partial automation like steering and acceleration.
Further down the scale, the automated system monitors the driving environment. Conditional automation means the vehicle can perform tasks, but human override is still required. High automation uses geofencing to have the vehicle perform driving tasks under certain circumstances. Finally, there is full automation — the vehicle does all driving tasks, under all conditions, with no human input required.
How does the technology work?
Autonomous vehicles create a map of their surroundings using sensors like radar, video cameras, lidar, and ultrasonic technology. They use this map to plot a path, and, using powerful processors and actuators, follow it. The actuators control acceleration, braking and steering.
The software that powers an automated vehicle also uses algorithms to avoid obstacles, object recognition to understand traffic rules, and predictive modeling and machine learning to stay consistent.
How do they use power?
Autonomous vehicles require a lot of power. As an article in CarBuzz explains, all of the technology listed above — and more — use energy. Given that most autonomous vehicles are electric, owing to safety and practicality concerns with a conventional combustion engine, energy use greatly impacts the vehicle’s battery.
Current vehicles that allow for some level of autonomy, like Tesla’s assisted driving systems, impact the driving range of an electric vehicle, highlighting some power considerations. Ideally, autonomous vehicles are powered by top-of-the-line battery technology to improve range, reliability, and uptime.
Are autonomous vehicles safe?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that safety is one of automation’s biggest potential benefits. Human drivers, and thus human errors, are removed from the chain of events that end in vehicle crashes. We already see some improvements in driver and overall road safety with driver assistance programs that anticipate and detect imminent danger, and avoid it.
Building in common sense is one issue that still needs to be addressed in fully autonomous cars. While humans have the real life experience to interpret information and react quickly, autonomous vehicles must have every situation programmed into their software. Machine learning works, but only to the extent that the system is trained.
Ongoing testing, analysis, and improvement for vehicles encountering unexpected situations are needed, and happening. The US government is setting forth safety standards. As lower-level autonomous cars become more popular, it’s safe to say that fully autonomous cars and their safety will improve.
What are specific use cases for autonomous vehicles?
Driverless trucks for dock work
Back in the 1960s, dockwork began automation with containers, leading to job losses but higher pay and more benefits for workers. As reported in local media, automation is continuing into the present and future with driverless, automated electric cargo trucks. The vehicles are known as autonomous utility tractor rigs or UTRs, and they handle containers without needing a driver.
Electric mining trucks
Autonomous electric mining trucks are being deployed to make operations more efficient, according to a CNBC report. Chinese firm SANY deployed the trucks in the report. SANY reports that the trucks demonstrate high-level environmental identification and positioning capability while independently tracking routes, loading and unloading materials, and parking.
Along with finding efficiencies in all of those capabilities, electric autonomous cars in mining have another key advantage. Because they are electric, they are safer for workers and the environment — there are no exhaust gasses to worry about.
The industry still needs to work toward renewable options for deep, remote, and lower-grade mines that pose problems for current technology.
Driverless taxis
In San Francisco, driverless taxis are on the way, according to NPR. These autonomous vehicles are operated by Cruise and approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The service will begin with 30 electric vehicles allowed to transport riders in less-busy areas of the city from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., a safety consideration to avoid injury or harm to people and property. Other safety considerations include not being able to operate in heavy rain or fog.
These taxis are fully driverless autonomous vehicles. Cruise and another company, Waymo, have already been operating driverless taxis that have a human driver there as a back-up just in case. Ideally, this technology works to make rides less expensive and safer at the same time.
Retail industry cargo
According to Retail Wire, some Sam’s Club locations in Dallas-Fort Worth benefit from autonomous cargo deliveries. These autonomous 26-foot box trucks replace traditional class 8 tractor trailers, and are positioned to keep goods flowing while reducing logistics costs.
These are short-haul vehicles, but the starting point of the technology provider’s plans is to increase capacity and reduce costs on a wider scale. Walmart is also looking at middle and last mile deliveries, piloting various projects. The company says that autonomous vehicles are working well for them, offering efficient, safe and sustainable transport of goods on repeatable routes.
How can they help certain populations (i.e. the elderly and disabled?)
TechRepublic posits that autonomous vehicles are not just a good solution for industry, they’re a good solution for populations like the elderly and disabled. These groups and others with challenges related to driving can sit back and relax with an autonomous vehicle, safely getting around and not missing out on any part of life. Of course, this may help industry in the long term as more people can get to their places of employment, or spend money to bolster the economy.
Medical transport could be improved for older people and disabled people using autonomous tech. Instead of hit and miss quality and scheduling the way transport works now, autonomous transport could be consistent and reliable.
While older users may be initially reluctant to use new technology like an autonomous car, eventually, as it becomes more mainstream people may come to see the value of this tech. Autonomous vehicles used for these populations must be safe and reliable. People may need to be trained or educated to use the technology, too.
What is energy density?
Energy density refers to the amount of energy stored in a system. For example, a highly energy-dense battery in an autonomous car holds a lot of power.
Why are energy-dense batteries important in these vehicles?
As noted earlier, all of the systems and processes that allow an autonomous vehicle to be autonomous use up a lot of power. The more energy-dense an autonomous vehicle’s battery is, the longer the power lasts and the greater the range of the vehicle. This means more time on the road, driving, delivering, and transporting, and less time parked needing human intervention.
How has energy density been used to improve vehicle performance?
We can already see the impacts of energy density and vehicle performance on electric vehicles (the not-autonomous kind). As an article from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas points out, innovation increases energy density and drives down prices. Electric vehicle manufacturers knew that people would not buy a vehicle with a poor range and a high cost, so they worked with battery innovators to create energy dense batteries that make an EV more efficient and attainable. Today’s electric vehicles travel further with a lighter battery, and are more affordable to consumers.
How does energy density impact the range of autonomous vehicles?
A TechCrunch article notes that, to be a viable alternative to traditional vehicles, autonomous vehicles need to get close to matching them in range. However, the more sensors and processes an autonomous vehicle needs to get through its journey, the lower the battery range and, thus, the lower the driving range.
Today’s electric vehicles can reach about 300 miles before requiring recharge, the article says, while traditional engines will average about 412 miles before needing to be refueled. City driving lowers the range of an autonomous vehicle even more.
The article also notes that the current computer chips used to power an autonomous vehicle require a lot of cooling — which, in turn, requires even more power and lessens range.
A highly energy-dense battery, combined with innovation in computing, can solve the range problem in autonomous vehicles. It may take time to innovate every piece of the puzzle. Still, as we have seen with electric vehicles, the appetite for the technology exists.
What are the potential consequences of high energy density in cars?
With most battery technology, one of the biggest problems supporting high energy density is the weight these batteries introduce. To attain ideal energy density, it’s often necessary to create a ‘bank’ of several batteries, improving vehicle range and uptime. Of course, with the physics of transportation, this poses problems for efficient movement.
It’s the problem plaguing many electric aviation innovators: too many batteries means the plane can’t take off. Too many batteries, in turn, means a car is very heavy, has less storage space, and is harder to maintain.
In addition, the more energy dense a battery is, the more energy it has to release if it breaks in some way. Energy-dense batteries can be highly volatile, prone to combustion, and dangerous.
How can you mitigate or prevent these issues?
The key is a lightweight, energy-dense battery that does the work of many batteries put together. Battery technology is constantly improving, motivated by a strong interest in electric and automated transport.
Of course, these batteries also need to be safe, which poses some limitations too. An energy-dense battery needs to be housed properly, especially in a moving vehicle, which may limit how light and compact it can be.
Why is battery technology vital for the automotive industry?
The International Energy Agency says that electric car sales have remained strong in 2022, after doubling in 2021 to a new record of 6.6 million. In 2022, two million electric cars were sold worldwide in the first quarter alone. It’s clear that electric vehicles are here to stay, and autonomous vehicles will be a part of the future of the automotive industry too.
To keep momentum, diversifying and improving battery manufacturing is key, says IEA. As with any kind of technology requiring energy density, electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles are only held back by what battery manufacturers can offer. The need for highly energy-dense, lightweight, and powerful batteries cannot be understated.
The role of Amprius in energy density advancements
Amprius’s high energy density electric vehicle batteries are a critical piece of the electric and autonomous vehicle puzzle. These lithium ion battery cells are among the most energy-dense lithium batteries commercially available today, thanks to the silicon nanowire anode.
These replace the conventional graphite anodes found in other batteries, enabling battery cells that boast 450 watt hours per kilogram. That far outstrips the current Tesla Model 3’s battery cells, which clocks in at 260-watt hours per kilogram.
These batteries offer fast charge, high power, high energy density, and long life, all critical to autonomous vehicle longevity and performance.
