Four driverless, autonomous vans finished a trek most drivers would never think of driving: From Italy through Eastern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Gobi Desert, all the way to Shanghai, China. They arrived there last Thursday, just in time for the Expo that closed last weekend. It was a long 8000 mile way, and they never got lost.
Equipped with four solar-powered laser scanners and seven video cameras that work together to detect and avoid obstacles, the vans could navigate through wide extremes in road, traffic and weather conditions. It wasn’t just a road trip, they also collected data to be analyzed for further research in a study sponsored by the European Research Council, report KPHO.
The vans used no maps, sometimes traveling through uncharted regions of Siberia and China. At one point, a van stopped to give a hitchhiker a lift. Though driverless and mapless, the vans carried researchers as passengers and to give a hand when things got dicey. Human intervention was needed when the vehicles got stuck in a Moscow traffic jam. Handling toll stations also still requires the human element – no E-Z Pass in Kazakhstan.
Considering how bad the average driver is, computers don’t have a very high bar to jump over.
The real question is, did they still ride the left lane like every other robotic a$$ on the road?
Now an experimental device, next an option on a few “luxury” cars, later widespread option, then mandatory, then mandatory for use on highways, then at all times. Welcome to the future, you are just a passenger..
Though we have recently had this discussion regarding a different platform, we both know the results are the same regardless of country of origin.
Robert, they just don’t get it,likely because they can’t wrap their heads around it, but still….
More or less, we are the last generation of humans to have autonomous control of their vehicles. Your grandchildren will find the notion “quaint”.
The only sad part is that some will deny the inevitability of it.
But how do they get through Customs?
UAW driverless cars would only run for 36 hrs a week … save the manuals … computers have rare earths.
I only had to read the title to post this comment.
It Shows
Driver less cars you say! Heck, in California I swear half the cars are going down the road driver less … or at best insufficiently.
I have a cousin who runs a commercial farm and they’re using that same technology on everything from a combine harvester to a 70s Diesel Chevy