The term of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) covers a wide range of vehicle types, mainly operating on the ground but also the air and the sea. These have the capacity to be operated automatically , although in many cases real time human control is still an option
. The emergence of this technology has been most associated with the high profile development of the Google Car for which Google has taken advantage of the large amount of hing quality of mapping data it possesses to program travel routes. The technology for autonomous vehicles has development to such an extent that the EU is focusing now on development of the infrastructure required to facilitate further deployment of this technology.
With some analysts predicting that by 2022 there will be around 1.8 billion automotive Machine to Machine. connections it is clear that a large amount of data will be generated by vehicles in the future. This level of communication between automated vehicles should make it possible for such vehicle to navigate to destinations and interact with other vehicles and objects more effectively than a human Brain.
The increased connectivity required to facilitate automation of vehicles would significantly improve the degree of monitoring of the performance of such vehicles. Individual owners would be able to better maintain and enhance their vehicles with improvement in fuel efficiency and safety.