When the steering wheel “disappears”: Is intelligent driving a liberation or a constraint?

Imagine a morning like this: you get in the car, set your destination , and the car moves slowly with the traffic . The scenery passing by the window is no longer a battlefield that requires your full attention, but a background for you to read, reply to emails, or even take a nap. The anxiety during traffic jams is replaced by efficient use of time, and the risk of fatigue driving becomes invisible. This is exactly the attractive picture depicted by intelligent driving - a liberated travel future.

Free your hands and liberate your life?

The core promise of smart driving is safety and efficiency. Machines don’t get tired, don’t get distracted, and react much faster than humans. In theory, this can significantly reduce accidents caused by human error and make roads friendlier to everyone—the elderly, children, and people with limited mobility. Imagine that parents who work overtime late at night no longer have to worry about the risk of going home alone, and friends with visual impairments can easily “drive”. This is not just convenience, but also an expansion of the radius and dignity of life.

The improvement in efficiency is also significant. Vehicles can "talk" to each other and coordinate route planning, reducing emergency braking and congestion, saving not only time, but also huge energy and social costs. Cities may be able to say goodbye to the "parking lot" dilemma, and road resources can be used more intelligently.

However, the shadow side of the steering wheel "disappears"

But the future is not all smooth sailing. When we hand over the steering wheel to the algorithm, a series of profound challenges emerge:

1. What is the cornerstone of trust? Can we really trust a machine to make the "correct" judgment in a life-or-death moment? The classic "trolley problem" may appear in a more complex form in reality. What values does the algorithm base its decision on? Protect passengers? Protect pedestrians? Protect property? Who defines this "correct"? After an accident, how is the responsibility clarified? Is it the software developer, the car manufacturer, or the regulator?

2. "Fragile" intelligence: Extreme weather (heavy rain, heavy snow, dense fog), unclear road signs, and emergencies (such as animals or pedestrians suddenly rushing out) are already challenges for human drivers, and are even more severe tests for sensors and algorithms. A system misjudgment can be costly. In addition, network security has become a sword hanging over one's head. Imagine that the autonomous driving system of an entire city is paralyzed by malicious attacks, the consequences will be disastrous.

3. "Forgotten" driving pleasure? For many people, driving is not only about moving from A to B, but also a sense of control and the pleasure of experiencing freedom. When driving is fully automated, will this direct interaction between man and machine be taken away? Will we become pure "cargo" in the car?

4. Ripple effect on society: Millions of professional drivers (taxis, trucks, freight, etc.) will face pressure to transform or even lose their jobs. Will the efficiency improvement brought by intelligent driving create enough new jobs to make up for it? Is society ready?

The invisible guardian: the silent contribution of rotary encoders

In the revolution of smart driving, which is about safety and trust, many inconspicuous but crucial technologies silently support the operation of the system. Just like the nerve endings of humans that perceive the world, vehicles also need to accurately perceive every tiny movement of themselves.

This is where the value of rotary encoders comes in. You may never have heard of it, but it plays the role of "precision sensory" in intelligent driving systems:

Accurately sense its own state: It accurately measures the rotation angle and speed of the wheels, and tells the vehicle control system in real time: How much have I turned? How fast have I turned? What is the direction? This is the basic information for the vehicle to accurately control the direction, maintain stable driving, and achieve automatic parking. Without this precise "self-cognition", no matter how smart the vehicle's "brain" is, it cannot effectively command its "limbs".

A key link of safety redundancy: In complex driving environments, the system requires multiple information cross-verification. The direct and reliable data about the vehicle's own movement provided by the rotary encoder is an important guarantee for information fusion and mutual verification with other sensors (camera, radar, lidar) to improve the reliability of the overall system. Especially when the sensor is affected by harsh environment, this data from the vehicle's "proprioception" is particularly important.

Guarding every tiny displacement: Whether it is a smooth lane change on the highway or precise parking in a narrow parking space, every tiny turn of the steering wheel (even in autonomous driving mode, the steering system is working) needs to be accurately captured and responded to. High-precision and high-reliability rotary encoders ensure that these subtle operations are faithfully executed, adding a layer of security.

It can be said that these sophisticated "sensory elements", like the nerve endings that allow intelligent driving systems to "perceive themselves", are one of the underlying cornerstones for ensuring the safe, stable and controllable operation of vehicles in a complex world.

Intelligent driving will undoubtedly profoundly change our lifestyle and bring huge convenience and social benefits. However, this "liberation" is not without cost, and it is accompanied by new questions about trust, ethics, safety and social structure.

We embrace the possibilities brought by the disappearance of the steering wheel, but we must not ignore the profound challenges it brings. Technology is developing rapidly, and thinking about responsibility, ethics, and the relationship between man and machine requires broader and deeper discussions and consensus from the whole society.

The road ahead is not only made of asphalt under the wheels, but also paved with human wisdom and responsibility. When we imagine the convenience of freeing our hands, please also remember those precise “senses” that silently guard every tiny displacement - they remind us that safety and trust start with the most basic and reliable perception and control. This may be the most solid foundation for the road to true “liberation”.