Platzer says that piece by piece, driverless technology is arriving.
#Features of project cars pc drivers
Ford, BMW, Toyota, Lexus, Lincoln and Mercury already offer cars that can take control of the wheel to help drivers parallel park. Already, some new cars come with automatic braking systems and warnings that alert drivers to dangerous situations.Īnd as for parking? Self-driving cars have that covered, too.
He says that self-driving cars will probably not be available to buy and use within the next few years, but they’re getting closer. At Carnegie Mellon, Platzer and his colleagues write computer programs that test the safety of self-driving cars. There are other cars around, and then there are pedestrians, and all of a sudden the traffic light changes to red and all these other things.”Ī car that drives itself must know what other cars are doing, which means managing a lot of information. “You can always steer left and right, or steer left and right a little bit or a lot. “A car has lots of decisions, not just going forward and backward,” Platzer says. Building automated cars is a more complicated project. In some ways, trains have it easy: They move only forward or backward, accelerating or braking. At airports like the Denver International Airport, automated trains take people to their planes. In Detroit, an automated train has been shuttling people through downtown since 1987. André Platzer, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, points out that driverless trains have been running safely for years. In the real world, safety is the name of the game. In episode after episode, the main character jumped in the car, gave some instructions and off they’d go to fight crime and solve mysteries. In the early 1980s, the television show Knight Rider featured a talking, thinking, bulletproof car named KITT. Until recently, the idea of a car that drives itself could be found only in science fiction. “People who see our technology understand its potential to make driving safer and cut down on traffic,” says Sebastian Thrun, the engineer and computer scientist in charge of Google’s self-driving car program. Around the world each year, traffic accidents kill more than one million people and injure 50 million others.
Using video cameras, radar sensors and lasers, the cars detect other autos and obstacles, which can help avoid crashes. A computerized car, they say, won’t be distracted by phone calls or iPods. Google’s researchers have safety in mind, and the computer programs behind these cars are designed to turn roads into safer places. All in all, the cars put on 225,300 kilometers (140,000 miles). They crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and zigzagged down the eight tight turns of San Francisco’s Lombard Street, one of the crookedest streets in the world. They navigated the turns of the Pacific Coast Highway, a narrow road that hugs California’s rugged coastline. The cars zipped all around northern California. People rode inside, but only to give directions and ensure that the car ran correctly. Each wore a contraption on the top that looked like a wide metal headband topped by a small, spinning cylinder. It sent a fleet of six self-driving cars into the world. Google is well known for its Internet search engine, but last year the company hit the highway. As an added bonus, they might even drive themselves down the highway or through a city. This is the future of automobiles: safer, smarter and more energy-conscious. They’ll help drivers save energy, watch out for other drivers and avoid pedestrians. Cars will talk to other cars, your computer, your phone and almost any other device. If it’s electric, your car may send you a text reminding you to plug it in. New cars may help you keep track of your health by reminding you to take medication. Scientists and engineers are finding new ways to make cars safer, smarter and more efficient, or use less energy. One day, such small, electric vehicles might safely shuttle people around, especially in crowded cities.
It is built by the General Motors, or GM, car company and points to what future automobiles might be like. The vehicle is called the EN-V (pronounced like envy). And return to their owners, when summoned by a button on a cell phone.