Lessons Learned from Deploying Autonomous Vehicles at UC San Diego

While most autonomous driving efforts reported are directed for general driving and mainly on major roads, there are numerous applications for autonomous vehicles for last mile mobility—from person mobility and mail delivery to flexible recharging of cars in parking structures. Over the last year, we have designed vehicles for the micro-mobility challenge. Our approach was based on adoption of the open-source Autoware system. The system was taken as a starting point for the design of a robust solution. Proposed requirements include a robust control design, a shift toward increased use of image data over LiDAR data, handling of a richer set of vehicles/pedestrians in a last mile scenario, and overall system characterization and evaluation. We present an overview of the overall design and the design decisions for construction of vehicles for last-mile delivery.