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Volkswagon Shows Off Self-Driving Auto-Pilot For Cars
thecarchik writes "The future of driving, in major cities at least, is looking more and more likely to be done by high-tech computers rather than actual people, at least if the latest breakthroughs in self-driving vehicle technology mean anything. Internet search engine giant Google has logged some 140,000 miles with its self-driving Toyota Prius fleet and Audi has had similar success with its run of autonomous cars. Now, Volkswagen has presented its Temporary Auto Pilot technology. Monitored by a driver, the technology can allow a car to drive semi-automatically at speeds of up to 80 mph on highways."
I know a VW car was used as a base for the CARolo entrant during the DARPA Urban Challenge, it didn't fare too well in the finals but was one of the few non-US teams to even qualify for it. Did they scrap that technology or is this a result of it?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The blurb doesn't make much sense (not counting the egregious misspelling). How is it initially going to be for big cities if the cars that come out are only offering this for highways?
strange site, with too many ads...
a more useful link seems to be this one, the VW Temporary Auto Pilot is part of a quite big European R&D project.
I guess VW got all the drivers they needed...
When someone is injured by a self-driving car, who is liable?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Posting to undo accidental mod
OT: Out of curiosity, how can a first post undo an accidental mod -- what could you possibly have modded?
So you admit the lawbreakers will be driving dangerously. Hello!
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
So it will become pretty easy do tell who are the real dickhead drivers. Get video, fine them generously, problem solved.
Hopefully, eventually the technology will get good enough that it's far safer than a human driver and they'll require everyone use it. Not to mention that if everyone meticulously obeyed the speed limit, they might be able to raise the speed limit. I know there are people who drive what they safely can in an area, but there are other people who just always drive X MPH faster than whatever the speed limit says.
Besides, as much as some people feel the speed limit is arbitrarily kept too low, if a situation becomes dangerous because some people are following the speed limit and others aren't, it's those who aren't following it that are at fault if anything happens.
Unless there's some unforeseen (by the general public) future setback in technology, there will come a point in the next few years when you won't be able to legally drive on a public street without this kind of technology--probably always on to take over when you speed, tailgate or just drive too aggressively. What possibilities would then exist for gaming the system? Not myself, of course, but others...
I assume that the firmware on these systems will be DRM'ed to prevent aftermarket adjustments. Some of the basic functionality (speed limits, etc.) would require a GPS signal; perhaps intermittent GPS jamming would cause the system to revert to full manual control. Any other ideas?
If people want to go that much above the speed limit they should go into the left lane. 80MPH is about 130 km/h which is the recommended speed on German motorways (which are usually 3 lanes per side), usually the middle lane will go at that speed so there'll be a lane to overtake these cars. If two lanes are going far enough below the limit/recommendation that the autopilot will move into the left lane then you won't be able to drive 50km/h faster than the limit.
Besides, nobody is going to go 50 km/h above the limit as being caught by a speed trap at that speed results in losing your license. Above the recommendation, sure but if the traffic is so light that you can actually pull that off then the autopilot car isn't going to get into your way.
From what I read on here the US doesn't even seem to have roads where you're allowed to go faster than 75MPH.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
am I the only one who read it too quickly and saw this as undo-ing car accidents :)... now that function would be awesome in a car
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
Apparently the editors cannot spell (or fact-check) ... in German, Volk = "people" and Wagen = "wagon; carriage; automobile." Thus, yes, Volkswagen -- the "people's car."
They'll also be driving in the right lane.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
GPS has dead zones right now and road sensors will needed as well
Also GPS can not pin point down to the lane level and last thing you want is for to think you are on a side road next to the highway and slow you down to a max of 25MPH
Or just go all the way and call it People's Car
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
It wouldn't be hard to set up a self-driving vehicle if you can make the assumption that all cars on the road have some sort of wireless signal that the self driving car can use. For instance, if the car ahead of you is slowing down, it could be broadcasting it's speed to other cars behind it, so the self driving car won't plow into it. There could also be construction signs that tell cars about construction zones and lane closings. You could stick these on stop lights too. For navigation, it could use a GPS perhaps with some electronics on the road to assist with going around curves or marking lanes.
I'd hate to be a pedestrian though. I can't think of a reasonable way for self driving cars to detect people crossing the street without people having to wear bracelets that broadcast another signal. It'd be cooler in my opinion if all of this was done without image recognition which is always a fuzzy issue.
winzigesautoumhitlerglücklichundbekommengutebenzinverbrauchwährenddeskriegeswagen
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
looking a bit into the future...So when you decide to take a nap during a trip in your autonomous car you're still in danger of crashing because that weary-eyed or drunk driver that can't afford this technology is still likely to drift out of his lane. How do they plan to avoid this type of thing? Will the car automatically swerve out of the way or screech to a halt while you're sleeping in the back seat? Seems like the only way for this to work is to have networking between cars in close proximity be a required component of all/new vehicles.
Go study.
Considering that most car "accidents" are actually people, it's rather hard to undo them. :p
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Have you tried driving on these "automated" roads of yours? It is hell on the suspension I can tell you. And the other drivers? No regards for other drivers. I just parked on the road for a while to take a leak and did the driver behind me stop? NO! Sirreee, well not until after he had dragged my car for a mile or two down the road. And then he got upset at ME for using the road in the first place, why didn't he just steer around it I asked but he just looked at me like I was mad.
Mad? Not me!
Sadly based on an old newspaper article where a car was hit by a train because the car driver thought he had the right of way on a level crossing...might have been a fluf piece, I was kid when I read it but it wouldn't suprise me.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Given that Audi and Volkswagen (that's wagen, with an E) are the same company, it's not surprising that they're sharing the technology behind this.
"In case of emergency, break glass. Scream. Bleed to death."
I'd TAP that.
badum-clack
Thank you folks, I'll be here all night.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
This seems more reasonable, though maybe not more exciting, than the Google auto-pilot car. Cruise control helps save driver fatigue, so there is no reason that this cannot too. Already, some production cars look ahead to break, some reduce speed when approaching a slower moving vehicle, and others automatically dim bright lights.
This is a nice baby step. After all, if you can't trust your car, then, well, you can't trust the car with a driver either. Though, it'll still scare the public the same way automatic parking kinda scared me... I don't wanna see cars backing up over cats. I want my cats to die naturally, when God kills them because people masturbate... The point being, that technology scares us because of superstition that somehow people are better at everything, when in fact, we are worse. Cats get run over whether a car does it or a person. But a car can be made to look for cats, and people just figure the little walking demons will move.
I8-D
I wish /. had a "you have modded this story" warning. I have accidentally undone mods by posting, sometimes a post you moderate is somewhat unrelated to the main topic so it's possible to forget exactly where it was. The reverse doesn't happen because the moderate dropbox doesn't appear once you have posted to a story.
They'll also be driving in the right lane.
Good point. I wonder why those guys who are so meticulous about obeying speed limits absolutely refuse to use the right lane. They complain about tailgaters but see nothing wrong in being too close to the car in the right lane to let anybody pass.
There is a warning in the web2.0ish version, when you hit preview the first time after you've modded, it will give you a box saying you've already modded and continuing to post will undo your mods. You have to hit preview again to get the preview.
It only appears once, it only appears if you did not check "post anonymously" (note that this does not mean posting anonymously will not undo your mods, it will.)
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
If you really wanna screw with someone, put in a fighter jet chaff system, and blow chaff behind you as you drive... all traffic behind you will probably come to a complete stand still.
FTA: Additionally, stop and start driving maneuvers in traffic jams are also automated.
This would seem to be the most gamed system. You pop the vehicle in reverse, and hit the car behind you, claiming it hit you.
Of course, this is an old insurance fraud trick, and with on-board blackboxes, one that will lead to a quick trip to jail. Of course, insurance companies are good at catching these types of fraud, too.
I think ultimately, any way you can game a computer, you can also game people. The system that prevents it is trust and insurance. Insurance looks for people with multiple claims, and prosecutors go after them similarly. On top of that, we can build trust. If someone is driving, they are likely not gaming the system because A) If they are, they will be caught. B) If they were caught, and are driving without a license or insurance they'll go to jail if they hit you.
You can game any system, but only for so many times. Unlike a hacker, someone actually driving and causing an accident is either an anarchist who drives away (and police will catch) or a con-man, who can't drive away (and insurance will catch).
I8-D
Cop: Do you know how fast you were going?
Me: Talk to the driver.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
There's a lot of that going around.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Well... undoing people is the "easy" part.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
There are some stretches in Nebraska on I-80 where the speed limit is 80. Maybe even 85. I can't remember exactly. It was six months ago.
I'm really a low 5-digit Slashdotter, but this ID is where I am now.
Indeed; when you give up responsibility, you must simultaneously give up freedom. Granted in this case the "freedom to control my own vehicle" is perhaps a bit esoteric, but it is indeed a freedom that will be eliminated if people are required to use "automatic" cars.
Personally, I don't like the trend in global society where people are giving up their freedoms just because they don't want any responsibility.
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
From what I've read, German highways are built for higher speeds; thicker pavements, wider lanes, grades less steep, etc.
If you want to do 80 when the speed limit is 65, you're a menace.
Free Martian Whores!
(note that this does not mean posting anonymously will not undo your mods, it will.)
Which is stupid. So you just log out before posting, and then it won't undo your mods...
Far too expensive. If you want to remotely detonate a moving vehicle you can already set up a remote control system and a camera to achieve the same effect for very little cost with far more precise control (if you're going after a moving target in traffic for instance).
Shall I get off your lawn then?
Semi-automatic driving is a bad idea.
I'm all in favor of full automatic driving. (I ran a DARPA Grand Challenge team.) But it needs a full sensor suite and good situational awareness. This is quite possible now. With devices like the Velodyne scanner, you have a full real-time depth image of everything around the car. (Yes, the Velodyne thing is too bulky and too expensive. There are ways around that. Advanced Scientific Concepts needs to get their flash LIDAR out of the high-end military market, and you need to build up your model from multiple sensors to get rid of that huge scanner on the roof.)
Automatic driving needs to handle the hard cases. A child running in front of a car. Trash on the road. Ice. This is not only feasible, hardware has much better reaction times than humans, especially tired or distracted ones. Google's automatic cars have encountered deer and avoided them. They can even pull off maneuvers that humans can't. There's video of Stanford's autonomous vehicle doing a power slide into a parking space. Repeatably.
Easy-cases-only automatic driving is a recipe for disaster. If you have lane-keeping and vehicle spacing, which is what's being talked about here, you have the illusion of automatic driving. Most of the time, it will work fine. Most of the time.
Expecting the driver to sit there, not steering but being alert, for hours on end, is unrealistic. When something bad happens, they won't react quickly enough.
I'd sure hate to find a VW Bug bug while being driven around town.
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
yes, if you're a member of the Dead Milkmen
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I doubt they're intending to let it exceed the speed limit but for their domestic market these systems really have to do 130 km/h as that's the speed traffic flows at there.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I don't want to give up "freedom to control my vehicle" to get out of responsibility, I want to give it up because I fucking hate driving. It's a waste of two-four hours of my life everyday that could be spent more productively if the car did it for me.
let me know when it's self paying!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Cruise control!
Robot cars will cause major societal revolutions, from doubling how many cars we can fit into a car-park, to drivers never having to visit a public or corporate car-park again, to solving drink driving, to ending car-crashes (or most of them) and saving a million lives a year (worldwide), to even enabling New Urbanism and less cars on the road and changing our relationship to car ownership. Imagine the end of taxi drivers. Imagine cars you can rent instead of buy, but without the human labour component. Everything's going to change! http://eclipsenow.wordpress.com/robot-cars/