You can make a robotic car, and you can
make a robotic car -- and it looks like Stanford is leading the charge on the no compromises approach with its new driverless Audi TTS. That, of course, is only the latest in a long line of robotic cars from the folks at Stanford, and it looks like it's also by far their most ambitious, as it's going above and beyond the usual
DARPA challenges in the hope of breaking a few records and winning a few races. In fact, the car apparently already holds the "unofficial" speed record for an automous car at 130 miles per hour and, in the long term, Stanford hopes that it'll be able to complete the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which stretches some twenty kilometers and includes no less than 156 turns. To balance all that adreneline, the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory at Stanford has also developed a new VW Passat "valet system" that may not win any races, but can sure do some mean parallel parking. Videos of both after the break, more details a few hands-off impressions courtesy of
BotJunkie at the links below.
Read - BotJunkie, "Stanford's New Robotic Audi TTS Knows How To Drift, Will Tackle Pikes Peak Next Year"
Read - BotJunkie, "VAIL Demonstrates Autonomous Valet Parking System"
posted October 26th 2009 5:59PM
Uh, Was that f*in JAVA code 2sec into the video?
Java FTW!
Why was there a glass of wine on the ground next to the passat? Are they implying that you can drink and park now?
That's a good use of the automation. No more drinking-and-driving. Just get in the car - in the passenger seat, just to be safe, if only from the cops who see you asleep, and let it take you home.
Think of the "creature comfort" aspects. Sure, you want to be able to race with the thing. You want to slalom and whatever.
But when you're just going in to the office or wherever on a boring, routine drive, set it to auto. Make calls, surf the web, play games. When you get wherever you're going, let it drop you at the door, park itself, and pick you up at the door when you're done.
Just because the car has auto modes doesn't mean it loses the manual modes.
MIT called. They want their cars back.
will teh valet one take the change in my cup holder?
Hmm i dont mind automated drivers as long as the whole world's programmers debug the programming for at least 5 years..............