[agambhandari]

We all know it is a great concept, so kudos to these guys for making it happen.

But I don't know if system will ever be possible to take control, at least in India!
Hope they can India-proof the system soon...or it will just keep stopping every yard

[mayuresh]

A BBC report shows Oxford University car, which is claimed to use much less expensive technology than Google's.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21462360

The video also says in 300,000 miles of journey, Google's autonomous cars had only one crash which was when a human took over!

[mayuresh]

This articles gives a nice break up and a terminology for various levels of autonomy such as "full autonomy", "restricted full autonomy", "emergency full autonomy", "highway assisted" ... and so on, along with manufacturers who are focusing on respective class.



http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/r...iving-robotcar

[mayuresh]

After some of the US states, it's UK's turn to officially test autonomous cars on public roads.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23330681

For now, the cars will be driven on lightly-used rural and suburban roads in a "semi-autonomous" mode which gives human passengers the choice to intervene.

They will be tested by the same team of Oxford University researchers who have been developing and testing autonomous car technology on an adapted Nissan Leaf around Oxford Science Park.

..."It's early days and driverless cars won't be mainstream for a long time."...

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by santhosh_kumard

Most modern aircrafts fly with the help of computer and from what I know pilots take over during take-off/landing/turbulence.

Very few, if any, commercial and or GA aircraft are capable of auto take off, although just all of them have have auto throttles, but the pilot is manually controlling yoke and rudder. There are several military planes that do fully automated "hands off" take offs. Notably the American F18 Hornet when it gets launched from the catapult of an aircraft carrier will have the pilot's hand on special grab handles to keep his hands from touching any of the controls.

Just about all commercial and or GA aircraft have elaborated autopilot system that allow the plane to land fully automatic, even in near zero visibility. On most planes, even with elaborate autopilot system, lowering/raising the landing gear and flaps is not automated and requires manual intervention by the pilot. Same for setting or arming spoilers, auto brake systems etc.

It's mostly company policy that dictates whether pilots will land on auto or manual. Most carriers will require a certain number of landing by their pilots to be made manually. Depending on your type of license/rating there could also be certain legal requirements on certain flight time and or manoevres. MInd you, these days a lot of that can be done on Full motion simulators as well, which is a lot cheaper and more efficient way of training pilots.

There is no reason why you would take a plane of the autopilot in turbulence. The only adjustment the pilot is likely to have to make is speed. (typically you slow down and different max speed for clear air and turbulent air might apply. Fact is that modern auto pilots fly much better and more precise than the best pilot!

Speed is just an input into the flight computer and or auto pilot, you typically punch or dial in the required speed, tell the electronics to execute and auto pilot and auto throttle will do the rest. Same for trying out a different altitude where turbulence might be less.

Having computers control your car will introduce a host of other problems. If the aviation industry is anything to go by, you could definitely say that the introduction of advanced electronic automated system has made aviation considerably safer and more economical and efficient. On the down side, it has introduced a very different type of pilot and pilot training. The idea that the computer will do everything is a long way off. All these automated system need monitoring, oversight and constant adjustments by humans. Some day it might be all fully automated, but we're not there yet by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the reasons behind the auto pilot, auto throttle and flight management systems is also that they allow the pilot(s) to concentrate on other tasks than flying.

Although, the jury is still out there on what really happened with the 777 that crashed in San Francisco, it appears that the crew was not familiar (enough) with the auto throttle system, did not understand what they could expect from it, how to use it and also reacted to late to the various system read outs.

When you start automating cars we are very likely to see similar patterns. Of course, we have pretty neat automated systems on some of our cars already. Such as adaptive cruise control. Volvo collision warning with auto brake system and there are probably a few more.

Although I absolutely loved to fly with auto pilot, when it comes to cars I'm happy enough with a good cruise control system on my car and I'll do the rest all by myself, thank you very much.

Mind you, I have always had a weak spot for automation and control systems, its one of the main subjects in Naval College. So when this starts finding its way into cars, I'll be very happy to figure it all out. I have a bookcase full of manuals on the Boeing 747 systems and I just love to figure out how it all works. So looking forward to all this new stuff, although I might not use it all the time myself.

Jeroen

[mayuresh]

Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, will soon bring region's first autonomous shuttle transport:

http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases...8-2187e2bb788d

This test-bed is the first of its kind in the region and could pave the way for the integration of autonomous vehicles in Singapore's transport system to alleviate the "first mile, last mile" transport problem (the first and final legs of a journey, the typical potential bottlenecks in a transportation system) faced by urban cities.

Quite sensible at the stage of the technology to confine autonomous vehicles to a known area - such as a shuttle service between specific points.

If I remember right, I think such (autonomous) system exists in some other parts of the world (I think for airport transport.)

[vinya_jag]

Was in MountainView a couple of weeks back. Saw a few of these cars running their routine tests in downtown Mountain View. But they all had a driver monitoring the car.

Also saw one of the prototypes in the Computer history museum. Was kind of wierd. A Chevy painted green.
But this section had no takers. They were all interested in an age old calculator.

[mayuresh]

"Self-driving Car Sales to Reach 95 million a Year by 2035" claims an article published today citing a report:

The article:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...r_year_by_2035

The report:
http://www.navigantresearch.com/rese...omous-vehicles

I could not access the full report text, though it seems to cover many technological, market and legal aspects as well as listing out main players in this field.

Some excerpts:

"The industry consensus is that autonomous driving will be available by 2020"

Google seems to think it's sooner than that:
"Self-driving cars a reality for 'ordinary people' within 5 years, says Google's Sergey Brin" (Sept 2012 statement).
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic..._s_Sergey_Brin

"by 2035, sales of autonomous vehicles will reach 95.4 million annually, representing 75% of all light-duty vehicle sales."

[vasoo]

He should visit India and will immediately agree that no super computer in the world can calculate all possibilities and make quick decision as fast as the brain of a driver here in cities like Bangalore.

Driving in USA is a "piece of cake" compared to what we do here. It should be possible to automate it there and still be safer than most of the human drivers. the story is very different in this part of the world. Here drivers need a "720 degree view", including the 360 degree in vertical plane, to be relatively safe and should have all his 4 senses fully alert (except for taste) all the time.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by vasoo

He should visit India and will immediately agree that no super computer in the world can calculate all possibilities and make quick decision as fast as the brain of a driver here in cities like Bangalore.

I really don't know enough about how the automate these cars, other than the sort of very basics. Often reference is made to the automation of planes (see also my earlier mail). But actually, getting an aircraft to land automatically without human intervention is a piece of cake compared to have a car drive autonomously.

An aircraft position is extremely well known (radio beacons, GPS etc) and it is actually Air Traffic Control or the airport controllers that ensure the runway is emply of other traffic. So basicly the plane just decends along a very simple, but very accurate radio beam.

But there is no such infrastructure in place for cars. A car not only needs to know it geographical position, it also, much more so than planes, needs to be aware of its immediate surroundings. E.g. other cars, bicycles, pedestrians, a football that gets kicked into the road, a traffic light, a [pothole etc.

So unless we develop a systems of sensors and computers that can actually detect all of those (i.e. like the human eyes/brain) it's going to be difficult. I'm no expert in this field, but visual recognition has been (and I thought still is) in it's relative infancy. Its not that difficult to come up with a whole host of technical solutions that could help solve this, but a lot of that will require a whole ecosystem of supporting systems (like in the aviaiton industry) before it will work.

Still, I'm sure we'll get there eventually. But I'm not so sure you'll see me in one of these automated cars, for various reasons.

Jeroen

[ACM]

But then is it not equally ridiculous that humans sweep roads?

There will always be more and more that we can automate.

There will always be the option of not travelling and just speaking to the person on the other side through better and better - maybe real time 3D video conferencing equipment as well.

But about the poor? what about health? what about the joy of driving? - there are those amongst us who value the driving experience and would be bored sitting in the back seat even with a driver on hand.

It is not just about if this is possible but also about if this is really desired and worthwhile at a specific point of time.

At what point do we stop - leads me to the below example:

I think if one refers to the movie Demolition Man (not too sure of the name) but Sylvester S did feel that the (in the future) modernized (mental) way of reproducing was a bit too boring and Sandra B did feel that the traditional way was a bit too Yucky.

[msdivy]

Nissan promises to sell self-driving cars by 2020

Nissan has said it is two car generations away from building mass-market self-driving vehicles, and has promised to have the first hands-free automobiles available for sale within the next seven years.

Source: http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/u...ive-benchmarks

[mayuresh]

GM's Cadillac SRX crossover is being worked on in collaboration with CMU, Oakland, for autonomous driving.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...re-now-700681/

It stopped at stop signs and red lights, safely entered traffic on cross streets, made turns (using turn signals, natch), changed lanes to pass cars, and slowed down and accelerated at appropriate times, all the while choosing the most efficient route to a pre-programmed destination.

...

The vehicle is equipped with six lasers and six radar covering all 360 degrees surrounding the vehicle and cameras in the front and back, including a thermal infrared model. Fusing all of the information gleaned from those devices are four whirling computers

...

the computers safely operate the vehicle's speed and direction of travel while determining lane markings, speed limits, the status of traffic lights, the speed and location of other vehicles, and classifying objects as humans, bicycles, motor vehicles or non-mobile obstacles.

...

it will be decades before totally autonomous driving will be commonplace but features will be incrementally offered by car makers. For example, features such as on-demand autonomous parallel parking, lane-drifting assist and adaptive cruise control, among others, are already available.

...

"But I do see a point in time [when the feeling will be] that if you are human, you are capable of making mistakes, and therefore if you are driving, you could be a danger to yourself or others. And because of that, you definitely would not be able to drive on public roads." (says CMU professor Raj Rajkumar, co-director of the autonomous driving research lab)

[dozer]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I really don't know enough about how the automate these cars, other than the sort of very basics. Often reference is made to the automation of planes (see also my earlier mail). But actually, getting an aircraft to land automatically without human intervention is a piece of cake compared to have a car drive autonomously.

An aircraft position is extremely well known (radio beacons, GPS etc) and it is actually Air Traffic Control or the airport controllers that ensure the runway is emply of other traffic. So basicly the plane just decends along a very simple, but very accurate radio beam.

But there is no such infrastructure in place for cars. A car not only needs to know it geographical position, it also, much more so than planes, needs to be aware of its immediate surroundings. E.g. other cars, bicycles, pedestrians, a football that gets kicked into the road, a traffic light, a [pothole etc.

So unless we develop a systems of sensors and computers that can actually detect all of those (i.e. like the human eyes/brain) it's going to be difficult. I'm no expert in this field, but visual recognition has been (and I thought still is) in it's relative infancy. Its not that difficult to come up with a whole host of technical solutions that could help solve this, but a lot of that will require a whole ecosystem of supporting systems (like in the aviaiton industry) before it will work.

Still, I'm sure we'll get there eventually. But I'm not so sure you'll see me in one of these automated cars, for various reasons.

Jeroen

I don't think it'll be visual, they may use something similar to sound waves or radar technology to identify objects. I'll be very surprised if it's visual.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by dozer

I don't think it'll be visual, they may use something similar to sound waves or radar technology to identify objects. I'll be very surprised if it's visual.

There are various different approaches, e.g. http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/r...iving-robotcar

I'd be very surprised if they use only one technique, most likely multiple techniques. Be interesting to see how they could use sound waves or radar to identity a lot a small, moving objects.

Jeroen