Driverless Car in Unmanned Car Race
Welcome back!
A driverless car will take part in an unmanned car race, which will be held in western U.S. on November 3 and 4. The car will line up against other ‘autonomous ground vehicles’ to complete in a 60 mile course in realistic traffic conditions.
At first glance it looks just like a standard vehicle…. Photo Team-LUX
The modified VW Passat was developed by Team-LUX, part of German company Ibeo Automobile Sensor, for the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge 2007.
It features plenty of high-tech features to help the car ‘see’ where it’s going and locate obstacles to maneuver around. Some features include GPS navigation and computer aided steering, brakes and gears.
It’s also packed full of state-of-the-art gadgets on the inside. Photo Team-LUX – Computer graphics of car with several extra technical features attached.
Like all the other entrants in the race, the Team-LUX vehicle drives entirely on its own with no human driver and no remote control.
This is the first time the DARPA challenge will test vehicles in an urban setting. First place prize for the race? A mere $2 million. That should cover the cost for a few of those gadgets!
Dr. Ulrich Lages, managing partner of Ibeo Automotive Sensor said “Although we are a relatively small team … our innovative laser technology gives us a lead of several years over our prospective rivals, especially in the field of object and environmental detection.�
DARPA has previously organized driverless car challenges in the desert, with goals of developing the technology to perform unmanned journeys in war zones.
The first Grand Challenge was held in March 2004 over a 142 mile desert course which none of the entrants managed to finish. In 2005, four vehicles successfully completed a 132 mile desert route within the 10 hour limit for the race.
The car was revealed to the public for the first time at London’s Science Museum April 2007 by Karen Tippkotter, the Team-LUX marketing manager.
Visitors to the Science Museum will be able to see and touch prototypes of the vehicles’ cutting-edge laser scanners, showing how the car can find its way around. There will also be video footage demonstrating how it moves by itself, and steps taken to transform a regular vehicle into a driverless one.
Science Museum, London
Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD, England
Phone: 0870 870 4868
Open: Daily 10:00 — 18:00
Closed: Closed 24 — 26 December
BSN Script has a cool video clip of the exhibit.
CBC had reported on Autonosys, a Canadian company in Ottawa, designed a driverless car in June 2005, which uses GPS technology to identify where the car is and laser radar to help it avoid obstacles.
It was the only non-American team to qualify for the semi-finals of the 142 mile Grand Challenge for driverless vehicles through the Mojave desert, sponsored by the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The U.S. military aims to have a third of its fleet of vehicles using driverless technology in the next 10 years.
Aside from its military uses, there are also plans to expand its applications to other industrial vehicles, such as in construction and agriculture.
Before it could ever be used in consumer vehicles though, engineers need to work on the computers’ ability to make decisions more quickly.
“The simple decision you make when you drive home now, we have to get the computer to make them,” said Kevin Williams, a mechanical engineer at the company.
Driverless cars and highways are already being designed, but the biggest obstacle might be getting people to accept them, said Ata Khan, an environmental engineering professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University.
Judging by the reaction of these people, I’m guessing it might be more than a bit of an obstacle.
Driverless Car Gag
That’s crazy! I would love to see that in person
very nice article! i m glad to find … hope it’ll work for me…
thanks