Are Self Driving Cars Our Future?

[Candypants]

A project funded by the European Commission is working to develop an infrastructure for self-driving cars. The system, called SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment), will allow cars to autonomously travel in a convoy. Also, testing begins NOW.
Sartre is designed for use on long roads such as highways, where navigation is minimal and a driver will be on that road for a long stretch. Cars will communicate with each other using wireless radios and a battery of sensors. With this system, a human-controlled lead car is put in place, while all the other cars in the convoy fall in line. When someone approaches their destination, they can take control of the car, breakout from the line of cars, and the rest of the convoy will adjust. Drivers will be able to carry out such tasks as reading, working or eating, without having to completely pay attention to the road.
SARTRE spent the first year designing the system and eliminating any bugs. The next two years will be spent testing. They will begin testing the system with two cars this month, and expand the trial to five cars next year, with the experiment continuing into 2012. However, they're unsure when this will be ready for public consumption.- Gizmodo

 

[Thai]

Interesting...a computer glitch could be devastating!

 

[blcktpgsr]

What? so it's not flying cars after all?...

What happens if any unexpected surprises were to occur while being in a convoy? how fast can the lead car react to a crossing deer?..

People are becoming too dependent on machines and electronics to take control and while beneficial for some applications, lives on the line is still very much a question.

 

[theizzardking]

What? so it's not flying cars after all?...

What happens if any unexpected surprises were to occur while being in a convoy? how fast can the lead car react to a crossing deer?..

People are becoming too dependent on machines and electronics to take control and while beneficial for some applications, lives on the line is still very much a question.

personally i would trust the reaction time of a computer to make the proper adjustments when confronted with a deer strike vs that of the average driver, and this is nothing new it has been in development for the last 10-15 years.
YouTube - VIAC Trailer: The VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge
where Mercedes did back in 1999
http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2010/11/robot-driver-less-truck-convoy.html

italy to china with very limited human interaction .

we can't even get people to move over to the left lane when not passing here and honestly 90% of drivers i encounter are morons , like anything it will take some time to stream line it and make it safe for use, i mean we trust our lives to computers everyday in various ways.

what i'm really excited for is the bio-material tech to start coming into play with auto's , imagine if one day you got in to a car accident and instead of ripping pieces off and replacing them you simply stick your car in a incubator and regrow the portions damaged? as well as the added benefit of being malleable to absorb larger impacts and deform more before total failure.

we're getting there but it's still a bit aways
BioSteel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and intel is already using human brain cells in their processors
Brain cells fused with computer chips - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com
Intel’s Mark Bohr: Look to biology for the future of computing | VentureBeat

i remember this being talked about around the year 2000

and don't forget moore's law as well as the fact that whatever sci fiction creates man will make..... eventually it's just a matter of time, most likely not in my life time or if it is towards the end, i mean think about it my grand parents where alive before the car was mainstream in the scope of things that's not very long at all .... it just feels like it..

i cannot even begin to contemplate what's going to come over the next 40-50 years of my life, i mean i'm only 29 and i've seen the rise of the internet, artificial organs being used, nano-tech,the far edges of the universe and a whole bunch of other things that would have been science fiction 50 years ago..i just hope we don't destroy ourselves before we can understand the power of the tech we are creating and wielding.

self piloting cars are going to happen it's just a matter of when, i mean can you imagine doing 140 mph on the freeway everywhere you went and got to sleep while doing it?

has a few different ideas of what future cars are going to look like
MIT Car


and if you get the chance check out discovery channels show future cars it's pretty good and goes over a large portion of this stuff
YouTube - The Future of cars

can't load this but i think it's a webisode of what i'm talking about.
Discovery Channel :: Beyond

 

[Jeff Kleb]

Drivers will be able to carry out such tasks as reading, working or eating, without having to completely pay attention to the road.

I drive on I-95 nearly every day......and I can tell you that they already do that.
:frisky::boink:

 

[MikesToy]

Those are good for the handicapped and lazy ppl. :lmao:

 

[Candypants]

@theizzardking whoa, u know ur stuff...

:iagree: I'm the same generation as you and who knows what's gonna happen in the next 40 years. Personally I wouldn't mind a REAL automatic Toyota... at least I won't have to ride everything up and down anymore

 

[broncosi]

not unless they come out before 2012!!

 

[Maritimer]

What will be the point in buying anything but a generic putz car? Put it in a line on a snowy and icy highway and the FWD compacts with no winter tires are in the ditch, and my 4WD is cruising along just fine?

 

[theizzardking]

lol, maybe but i also remember that things like a HUD were going to become mainstream back in the 90's, remember caddy's started doing that back in 99 and ten years later we're just now starting to see that come through on a larger variety of makes and models but by no means mainstream yet, i thought that was going to be really cool as well, but here we are......anyone remember how long it took for ABS to become mainstream? lol

and keep in mind this tech is relatively simple when compared to an "driver-less car".......

i'm just excited to see what life hold for me in the future and really get into the cutting edge tech stuff, i like the mech warrior suits they are making in japan......

crazy stuff, fake muscles for robots and possibly humans in the future
Methanol-powered artificial muscles start to flex - tech - 16 March 2006 - New Scientist

robot skin, feels pressure and temperature pretty much as good as human skin
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Thin skin will help robots 'feel'

a refined verison of the exoskeletons most are used to seeing

complete suit

then the next step is to integrate that with thought control
Category: japan

combined with proprioception

http://scitechstory.com/2010/12/14/wearable-robotics-adding-proprioception/

and then it's just like the movies you can run jump and lift stuff like a super hero, how crazy will that be...

the us of a is developing a suit as well but admittedly we're a bit far behind in this field of tech, look at the size difference between the 2 suits and how well they fit, that's going to make a big difference when considering the functionality of the mech suits.

the American on

the Japanese one

lol, i know a massive derail but man, i really dig this sort of tech thing.

 

[theizzardking]

What will be the point in buying anything but a generic putz car? ?

common sense, and if your at that point i'm sure you can program slip control sensors that will determine the road conditions and either adjust accordingly or
simply shut down and not go anywhere, i mean i'm sure there would be a way to sort that out it could be as simple as a government reg. stating that on "driverless cars" there is a certain standard for tires and traction (2wd 4wd)


in fact another thing i heard about for future tech on cars is that each wheel will be driven by it's own engine, meaning instead of having an engine under the hood you'll have 4 smaller engines at each wheel so essentially every car will be 4wd, these are called wheel hub motors and have been used on various concept cars for the last 5-10 years and was first used in the early 1900's

the wiki page on them
Wheel hub motor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and article
Back to the Future: Cars with hub motors

 

[Maritimer]

common sense, and if your at that point i'm sure you can program slip control sensors that will determine the road conditions and either adjust accordingly or
simply shut down and not go anywhere, i mean i'm sure there would be a way to sort that out it could be as simple as a government reg. stating that on "driverless cars" there is a certain standard for tires and traction (2wd 4wd)

Yeah, and then there are going to be the times, frequent, when you just slip off the roads and go somewhere off the beaten path.

I guess this makes a lot of sense for freeways, especially since a lot of idiots don't know how to drive on the highway.

You'd never think that doing 20kmph over the MAXIMUM speed in the outside lane could cause so much problems for people--it's downright scary when there's a merge onto the highway; the guy in the "slow lane" is doing the speed limit, I'm passing at an illegal speed, the guy merging doesn't know what to do, and here's a guy behind me wanting to go even faster. Sheesh. I don't know what people did back when there were just single lane highways.

 

[MikesToy]

I thought the cars of the future would be cars flying.

 

[theizzardking]

Yeah, and then there are going to be the times, frequent, when you just slip off the roads and go somewhere off the beaten path.

I guess this makes a lot of sense for freeways, especially since a lot of idiots don't know how to drive on the highway.

You'd never think that doing 20kmph over the MAXIMUM speed in the outside lane could cause so much problems for people--it's downright scary when there's a merge onto the highway; the guy in the "slow lane" is doing the speed limit, I'm passing at an illegal speed, the guy merging doesn't know what to do, and here's a guy behind me wanting to go even faster. Sheesh. I don't know what people did back when there were just single lane highways.

I thought the cars of the future would be cars flying.

well there was some talk for a minute about using this system in place of our current and existing freeway structure.

Maglev (transport) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


problems was though that is requires a physical change in the rails if course needs to be diverted from an original and pre-set location prior to departure, that and the sheer scale of ripping up all of the existing roads and replacing with magnetic freeways , but this tech would take of both of your worries you get a flying car and never ever have to worry about traction again, lol

personally i want the bank tube system like they have in futurerama

or the 1800's version...

and a real life mini version

some other tube systems
23 Pneumatic Tube Systems | Listicles

 

[Uneek]

We're not far from it considering the number of cars that offer adaptive cruise control maintaining distance with the vehicle in front. Now there's quite a few models with systems keeping the vehicle in its intended lane.

Mash those systems together a bit more and a bit more technology trickery, pretty soon I can jump in, nap and wake up be home from work.

 

[Candypants]

rofl @ all posts of theizzardking! Sorry.. too much info to absorb, but so much fun to lurk...

 

[JohnsD90]

Nope, I wouldnt get on a plane without a pilot, I won get in a car without a driver, if you don't want to drive take a cab. Dispite computers great reaction time and all, they can't comprehend road conditions, deers, tight roads, what to do in an emergency situation where you need to pick whether you hit that deer or slam in that ditch or tree. The computer won't ever be able to make that desicion and won't ever be able to, the best computer is no match for good experienced drivers.

 

[theizzardking]

John, people are not even able to make those choices correctly every time, what your talking about is accidents they are bound to happen no matter what.

No system is completely safe and never will be, even humans have heart attacks, black out and make poor decisions.
The real advantage of computers comes from the fact you can program the choices from the best of us say like the stig or pro race guy and sensors that are accurate far far beyond human perception.
Look at a faro laser tracker if we improve the adm features on that it can easily track a deer coming from the woods or any object for that matter and react with greater accuracy then you or I could hope for.
Also check out photogammatry if moores law continues we could also intergrate a live version of that and compensate ..you can compute mass based on alot of these readings


Another thing to look at is the modern airliner they already fly on auto pilot 90% of the time and the crew relies on instruments for basically everything ...ever noticed how small those windows are? Lol

Point is your life is already being flown around by a computer with a human babysitter and I can easily see a point where drivers are no longer needed the real question is will it be in 5-10-20 or maybe another 100 years from now? I cannot say and don’t think anyone can really say.

And I know how you feel man it is kind of scary but imagine being around when planes or cars where first invented lots of people probably said them becoming mainstream would never happen and who were just out right scared of getting in a 10k lbs tin can flying 10k ft off the ground doing 100's of miles an hour...think about it..doesn't sound very smart does it,

For me that's the amazement and wonder that is mankind, truly I'm blown away every day when I look around and find another cool thing we have done, I mean look at what we're doing in physics alone and it'll blow your mind.
I think given enough time and money into development we can figure this out as well.