Researchers are pushing the envelope along each of these axes, with the objective to get closer to Level 5 autonomy.
An alternative way to characterize the level of autonomy of a self-driving car is according to three axes defining (1) the speed of the vehicle; (2) the complexity of the environment in which the vehicle moves, and (3) the complexity of the interactions with moving agents (cars, people, bicyclists, and so on) in that environment. Researchers are pushing the envelope along each of these axes, with the objective to get closer to Level 5 autonomy.