Three Ways Machine Learning Will Disrupt Transportation

According to Business Insider, 10 million self-driving cars are expected to hit the road by 2020. For many, the prospect of taking trips with unmanned vehicles may seem akin to magic, but the capability is actually the result of machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence that uses algorithms designed to learn from and respond according to the data it receives. In the transportation industry, machine learning is the driving force behind many burgeoning technological advances. On Wednesday, October 26, industry and academic experts gathered in Northwestern's McCormick Auditorium for "Machine Learning in Transportation," a technical workshop hosted by the Northwestern University Transportation Center and Northwestern's Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology that featured speakers from Northwestern, BMW, IBM, and more. "Machine learning allows us to tackle tasks that are too difficult to solve with fixed programs written and designed by human beings," said Aggelos Katsaggelos, Joseph Cummings Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering.