Hitachi's Tiny Robo-Taxi Carries 1 Passenger and No Driver

New submitter terrywo5 writes "A new driver-less robotic car nicknamed ROPITS was revealed recently by Hitachi in the city of Tsukuba. This tiny robotic car uses GPS to transport its single passenger, and it can be programmed to pick up and drop passengers automatically. Check this article and video to learn more about this car."

Comments

Johnny Cab ?

[MLBs]

I wonder if there's a stick there to evade the bad guys.

Before anyone asks...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

...I'm sure it *is* running Linux, seeing as there is no driver for it.

Re:Before anyone asks...

[maxwell demon]

No, it can be clearly seen in the video that the car has windows.

Their blog is probably hacked.

[Anonymous Coward]

View page without javascript and see the wonder that is link spam.

Re:Passengers need a helmet?

[ArcadeMan]

Do you know of a better way to get tentacle monsters?

Back to tracking, always on topic

[Trax3001BBS]

Something wicked that link hides: "Web Site Blocked by NETGEAR Firewall"
http://www.shiotsu-used-car.com/blog/hitachi-selfdrivingroboticcar-ropits.htm

Made it past my HOSTS file and got caught by my router which is set up
for the Android Motorola XOOM and Playstation 3 (blocking the tracker Playstation.net).

You can complain about tracking, post to articles about it being wrong or you can do something about it.

Re:Passengers need a helmet?

[TheRaven64]

Statistically, you are marginally more likely to die in an accident if you don't wear a helmet. If you do, however, then you are more likely to be involved in an accident overall and significantly more likely to suffer permanent paralysis from an injury. The former is believed to be a combination of a perception of increased safety and reduced spacial awareness from the different airflow around your ears. The latter is because the large helmet significantly increases the torque on your neck in an accident, so impacts that would have been a mild concussion become a broken neck.