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Google's self-driving simulator helps it refine its cars
Google's self-driving simulator apparently plays a big role in the development of the company's autonomous vehicle technology despite its cadre of cars being tested on actual roads. In its latest project report, the tech leviathan has revealed that it travels 3 million virtual miles every single day -- enough to circle the equator five times every hour -- to refine the features of its self-driving software. That simulator requires loads of computing power, but if there's any company with the data centers capable of keeping it running, it's Google.
Toyota's VR driving simulator teaches teens to focus on the road
You can tell people that distracted driving is bad and make laws preventing it, but that won't necessarily make the dangers sink in. Toyota thinks it has a way to convey the risks to impressionable minds, however. Its new TeenDrive365 education initiative includes an Oculus Rift-powered virtual reality simulator that challenges both teens and parents to keep their eyes on the road despite a horde of distractions, ranging from text messages to talkative friends in the back seats. As you'd guess, the VR is meant to produce a more realistic experience -- it's more tempting to look down at your imaginary phone than it would be if you were staring at a regular screen.
Saginomiya driving simulator steers real car, isn't quite Avatar on wheels (video)
Most simulators act in isolation from the real world, so when we see one that breaks out of its virtual shell, we're more than a little intrigued. Saginomiya has designed a driving simulator that's directly linked to an actual car's components sitting on a six-axis motion system. The whole affair works as a form of virtuous circle for testing, where the real parts feed on the simulator and vice versa: since the simulator is based on the internal model of the car, it can translate road results directly to the suspension and steering of the physical components, which promptly loop around and dictate force feedback in the simulator through actuators in the steering wheel. Apart from creating what amounts to the real real driving simulator, Saginomiya's invention is a huge boon to automakers, which can test how key components work without having to build the whole vehicle first. Sadly, the simulator likely won't reach full-on Avatar levels and steer a car on a real road anytime soon, but it's engaging enough that we can see more than a few test drivers putting in overtime just for kicks.
ZMP's City Simulator Experiment takes the driver out of the car, keeps the helmet just in case (video)
ZMP has done some great things in the past -- well, except maybe Miuro, the roving iPod dock that ensured your PMP would always be just out of reach. Lately the company has been focusing on self-driving cars like the RoboCar MEV, and while this little one most certainly does have a driver, that driver is not actually in the car. It's a potential roadway revolution. Just imagine being able to partake in your morning commute from the safety of your own home! Right now it's just a little RC car (not unlike Malte Jehmlich's telepresence Wipeout from last year) being steered by what looks like a Logitech Driving Force GT, making us hope that the next Gran Turismo offers a mode just like this -- minus the headgear.
Robot arm takes engineers for a virtual reality Formula 1 ride (video)
As it turns out, industrial-strength robot arms are good for more than amusing hijinks and the occasional assembly line -- a team of researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have turned a KUKA KR 500 into the ultimate Formula 1 simulator ride. Outfitting the six-axis, half-ton lifter with a force-feedback steering wheel, pedals, video projector and curved screen, the newly-christened CyberMotion Simulator lets scientists throw a virtual Ferrari F2007 race car into the turns, while the cockpit whips around with up to 2 Gs of equal-and-opposite Newtonian force. There's actually no loftier goal for this particular science project, as the entire point was to create a racing video game that feels just like the real thing -- though to be fair, a second paper tested to see whether projectors or head-mounted displays made for better drivers. (Projectors won.) See how close they came to reality in a video after the break, while we go perform a little experiment of our own. [Thanks, Eric]
Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video)
Festo may've already stirred up plenty of attention with its mesmerizing AirPenguin blimp, but let's not forget its other weapon -- fluidic muscles (elastomer tubes that contract when filled with fluid). At The Gadget Show Live in the UK, this German company was also showing off its AirMotion Ride car-racing simulator -- essentially a driver's seat suspended from just six fluidic muscles for the six degrees of freedom, while sound and vision are handled by its 5.1 surround sound speakers and a projector. The company claims that each of these lightweight muscles can generate forces of up to 1,600N, and since there are no mechanical parts inside, they make an ideal replacement for conventional hydraulic plungers as used on Force Dynamics' and Motion-Sim's simulators. You can see Festo's machine in action after the break, but promise us that you won't judge our driving ability.%Gallery-90032%
Toyota demos massive driving simulator, aims to nix traffic deaths
Simulators similar to the one recently unveiled to the world by Toyota aren't all that uncommon, but this 4.5-meter high pod is "the first to move laterally and has the longest range of 35-meters front to back and 20-meters from right to left." Reportedly, the automaker plans to use its newest toy to "analyze driving characteristics under various conditions such as drunkenness and drowsiness" and subsequently decide what new safety features should be added to its fleet of motorcars. More specifically, the device enables researchers to "conduct driving tests that would be too dangerous to perform in the real world or that require specific driving conditions," and we're pretty sure the 360-degree concave video screen is quite the draw, too. Unfortunately, we have little faith that you'll ever see a tamed version of this here simulator at your local arcade, but one can hope, we suppose.[Via Yahoo / Reuters, image courtesy of Tech.co.uk]
