Oxford Tests Self-Driving Cars

halls-of-valhalla writes "Using advances in 3D laser mapping technology, Oxford University has developed a car that is able to drive itself along familiar routes. This new self-driving automobile uses lasers and small cameras to memorize everyday trips such as the morning commute. This car is not dependant on GPS because this car is able to tell where it is by recognizing its surroundings. The intent is for this car to be capable of taking over the drive when on routes that it has traveled before. While being driven, the car is capable of developing a 3D model of its environment and learning routes. When driving a particular journey a second time, an iPad on the dashboard informs the driver that it is capable of taking over and finishing the drive. The driver can then touch the screen and the car shifts to 'auto drive' mode. The driver can reclaim control of the car at any time by simply tapping the brakes."

Comments

I hope they spell better at Oxford

[lophophore]

on your car, you have "brakes". if the brakes break, then you have big problems.

Kindly consult the Oxford English Dictionary.

Re:You'd think it would be obivous

[serviscope_minor]

You'd think it would be obvious to some of the folks at slashdot that pontificating about a grand idea is much, much easier than making a simpler idea actually work right.

Re:This is great, but not very exciting

[BasilBrush]

So these Oxford researchers are not doing something new, they are just doing less.

Doing less is a new approach. A sensible one, particularly in robotics. For example see the Roomba, vs the Electolux Trilobyte. The Trilobite mapped the whole room before designing an efficient cleaning route. The Roomba just wanders randomly, with some simple heuristics for occasionally following walls and occasionally changing direction. Result: The cheap Roomba approach is successful in the market, and the expensive Trilobite is a failure.

Here for example you mention GPS. That's of limited use, as the accuracy is in terms of meters. Far too course for self driving. And it can disappear completely in cities. And all it would do is narrow down the initial search space to identify the current location.

One way to make their system more useful would be to upload learned routes to a server, so they can be auto-downloaded to other vehicles. Then your car could self-drive even on roads you haven't driven on before, as long as someone else has driven them.

I suggest you RTFA, then you won't spend time describing something they already have slated for the future.

Re:Google has done this already.

[RaceProUK]

expected price decrease in the future would be achieved by going camera-only.

Cameras don't deal well with rain, snow, and fog.

Infra-red cameras cope fairly well, better than the human eye sometimes.