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Self-Driving Golf Carts May Pave the Way For Autonomous Cars
itwbennett writes: Researchers from MIT and Singaporean universities are experimenting with self-driving golf carts that use less (and relatively cheap) gear than self-driving vehicles while relying on computation-efficient algorithms. In addition to a webcam, each cart is equipped with four single-beam LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors from German maker Sick that have a field of view of about 270 degrees. Two of the sensors were mounted in the cart's front and used for determining its position and obstacle detection. The other two were cheaper, shorter-range sensors and were mounted on the back corners of the cart to scan for obstacles behind and on either side of it. The cost of the sensors was still high (on the order of $30,000) but that's less than solutions used in more sophisticated robotic vehicles. (Google has used $80,000 Velodyne LIDARs on its earlier self-driving cars.) A YouTube video shows the carts traveling the winding paths of a public garden in Singapore at a leisurely 24 kilometers per hour — slow enough for the computers to process all the obstacles (mainly pedestrians and animals). The researchers envision the self-driving vehicles being used in a shared transportation system, as rental bicycles are used in many cities.
do they have self putting golf carts too?
I'm going to love self driving cars. I will never own one, they'll have to tear the steering wheel out of my cold dead hands, but pranking self driving car owners will be funny as hell: https://xkcd.com/1559/
Are they able to automatically drive you to your ball after you tee-off, or does that only come with the deluxe package?
A more pertinent question is why is this being done at all. Are people so fat and lazy that they can't even drive a golf cart now?
A month ago, my department at work held a golf outing (I did not attend, but they are remarkably popular here). Over 70 people participated. Over the course of that Friday, three golf carts were rolled, one badly enough that the driver ended up with a broken arm and had to be carted to the ER.
Several engineers are now permanently banned from that course, and we may end up not having any more golf outings. So there is definitely a market for self-driving golf carts.
The downside, of course, is that they may well end up designed by the idiots who rolled them in the first place.
Ad luna, Alicia! Ad luna!
Many resorts (and resort towns) use golf carts for transportation. They would be perfect for moving people around to the beach, golf course, spa, shopping, etc.
Most major cities have average driving speeds well below a golf cart capabilities.
Replace all the traffic lights by computer-driven "real-time overhead video and algorithms let you keep going when there's just the right amount of time", and you may actually get to your destination a lot faster.
Some games are getting really good at letting huge crowds cross paths without colliding. All you need is to convince humans to surrender the control (and not drive a vehicle 2/3rds the size of the road). In pedestrian areas at the center of cities, there's not reasons why you couldn't do it with golf carts.
and Wigs.
See article on /. of Autonomous Cars and bombs
Many assembly factories (especially car factories) already have completely autonomous carts driving around specialized car parts. This allows the factory to use one line for every flavor or add-on of the car since the cart will bring that particular piece Just-In-Time the technician at that post needs it. This is probably much more complex that golf carts driving around a golf course.
I recently moved to the SF Bay Area and already got rear-ended several times!! I'm not even surprised the only accidents Google cars get into is when other cars hit them!
Autonomous cars mandatory ASAP!
I LoL'd. New to the SF Bay Area we we took a wrong turn ending up on the cable car rails and where we shouldn't of been. While even in a hurry to get back to where we were suppose to be, noticed we had 4 or more cars that had followed us (as lost as we were).
"Step aside, humanoid. Playing through."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I thought autonomous golf carts have been used as research platforms for years (considering that was MIT back then too)....
Well with this generation, it's new to you!
Yes, just like ALL cars are STILL REQUIRED to be PRECEEDED by a man carrying a FLAG.
Oh, no, wait, they're not, because progress.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Here's how I envision the gradual expansion of these technologies.
On the one hand we will have the open network; the public roads. Over the next two decades we'll see more and more automation integrated into our cars. Within 10 years we'll have the first vehicle-to-vehicle traffic negotiation devices show up. These will initially negotiate with the road signs, traffic signals and other vehicles. Within 20 years these devices will replace the signs and signals. The red light will be on our dashboard. The speed limit that currently shows on our GPS will have the force of law. At first the driver will be assisted by the automation technology. The computer will only take over when the driver is about to crash or run someone over.
Gradually the computer will take more and more of the driving role. It will park itself. It will brake at intersections. It will let off the brake when the light turns green (but the driver will press the gas to move forward). It will control the speed of the vehicle so the car can't go too fast. If an emergency vehicle approaches the car might pull off the road to let it pass.
In the meantime automation technologies will be integrated into private road and off-road networks. Golf carts will almost certainly be used in such a network. Standardization will allow industry to designate closed roads for moving goods between buildings and then within industrial parks. Then someone will want to connect the industrial park with the airport or seaport. Maybe they take a low use rail line and convert it to a closed road. Cities will probably close off downtown areas to non-automated traffic. People will hail a "cab" to get around downtown and use mass transit to travel outside the city.
As the technology advances the closed and open road systems will start to interact. You might drive to the airport but have your car drop you at the gate and then find a place to park itself. You go shopping and your car pulls up so you can load the groceries. In perhaps 30 years time the industrial system and the public system will be mature. Eventually we reach a tipping point where we just switch everything over to automated transportation.
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
On the other hand, the factory has the ability to 'control the course' much better and shouldn't have to worry about drunk workers on the floor doing stupid tricks. They can also do things like embed direction lines in the floor(or even the ceiling), so the pathing is simpler.
I don't read AC A human right
An entirely subjective analysis of your rant leads me to believe that the rest of us will be safer if YOU don't drive. I'm willing to bet you're one of the 80% of motorists who drive better than average, right?
Why all these fancy Lidar systems? What is wrong with stereo vision. Full vision is a tough problem, but basic stereo was worked out decades ago. Have to cameras pointing in the same direction, recognize common features in both pictures (the tricky part), do a bit of trig (easy), and you know exactly how far away they are.
Growing up near numerous golf courses as a child in Philadelphia Pennsylvania I was forcefully exploited having to drive and park golf carts .....Damn it was sooo fun! and anyone who plays or has played golf knows that the driving the cart is at least (possible beer included) the most fun they will have all week.
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I like this troll template, and expect to see many more examples of its use in future slashdot episodes.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
So I take it you've never been to an RV park before. Must suck to be you.
I take it you regularly frequent RV parks. Must really suck to be you.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I'm willing to bet that you're one of the really shitty drivers that causes accidents all the time because you're the type that complains about other drivers more than anyone else. Meanwhile while I've been in a few minor accidents over the course of driving for the last 35 years I'm not the one who is screaming to 'ban human drivers', which of course is utter and complete nonsense, will never work, will never happen, because I know the 'bad drivers' are a small majority and most people behave themselves on the roads just fine, and that shit happens and getting all spastic over that fact just shows how immature someone really is.
There will never be driverless cars. There will never be cars with no manual controls. Untrained, unlicensed people will never be allowed to be the sole occupant of any so-called 'autonomous car', ever. You're all living in a childish fantasy world in your heads, and it will never be. Get over it and grow up already.
Are you the same people that keep voting for more and more restrictions on everyones freedoms in the name of 'security'? I wouldn't at all be surprised if you are.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!