How Do Self-Driving Cars Know Where to Go?

Imagine your car is like a super-smart puppy. It sees everything around it, the road, the trees, the other cars, and uses that to figure out where it is going. It has eyes (like cameras) and brainpower (like sensors and computers) that help it know when to turn, stop, or go faster. A self-driving car doesn’t need a map, but it still knows where it’s going, just like you do when you walk home from school.

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Examples

  1. A self-driving car sees a stop sign and stops, like you do when your teacher tells you to be quiet.
  2. The car knows it’s on the right road because the buildings around it look familiar, just like how you know where you are at school.
  3. When there’s heavy traffic, the car slows down, like how you slow down if someone is walking in front of you.

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