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Autonomous Road Train Project Completes First Public Road Test

Posted by samzenpus on from the follow-the-leader dept.

theodp writes "Covered earlier on Slashdot, but lost in the buzz over the Google driverless car is Project Sartre (Safe Road Trains for the Environment), Europe's experiment with 'vehicle platooning,' which has successfully completed a 125 mile road test on a busy Spain motorway. Three Volvos drove themselves by automatically following a truck in the presence of other, normal road users. The Register reports that on-board cameras, radar and laser tracking allow each vehicle to monitor the one in front, and wirelessly streamed data from the lead vehicle tells each car when to accelerate, break and turn."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Break by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well I hope they didn't send the "break" signal too often. That'd be a real bummer.

  2. Break? by djbckr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously, how easy was that one? Brake is something that slows down a vehicle. Break is when it fails to Brake!

    1. Re:Break? by pitchpipe · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...and wirelessly streamed data from the lead vehicle tells each car when to accelerate, break and turn.

      It's not a typo. The lead car has special sensor to determine when a car is getting fatigued, and will call a 'break time' when it senses enough cars getting tired.

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  3. Re:Or you could just take an ordinary train by digitallife · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, because a real train is exactly as convenient and practical as driving my car on the highway. Should I get off your lawn now?

  4. Re:Project Sartre???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You could have taken say, 3 seconds, and done something better, like...

    They were driving on the highway, and discovered there was no exit.