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Look Ma, No Hands

Discussion in 'Other Cars' started by Areometer, Dec 1, 2004.

  1. Areometer

    Areometer Silver Business Sponsor

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    [img=right:1d6362e960]http://priuschat.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/a740.g.akamai.net_f_740_606_1d_image.pathfinder.com_time_europe_magazine_2004_1206_car.jpg[/IMG]
    After the horseless carriage comes the driverless one. And this new vehicle may be going places

    By TERRENCE MURRAY

    Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004
    How do you steer this thing?" passengers might wonder as they step into the cartoon-like vehicle. It's a golf cart–sized car with seats and a dashboard that accelerates, turns and stops, but it has no steering wheel — and no driver. The CyberCar uses the latest in computer technology to dispense with human navigation.

    Unlike the automated cars currently ferrying passengers through airports and industrial areas in Amsterdam and Hamburg, the CyberCar can function without following embedded road tracers: it follows a preprogrammed route, and a laser sweep pegged to its front end allows it to avoid or stop in front of obstacles. The town of Antibes on the French Riviera and the nearby principality of Monaco are considering buying their own fleets to taxi visitors around their cramped streets.

    The CyberCar was developed by a consortium of 15 European research centers and spearheaded by Michel Parent, program director for research and development at France's INRIA, an automation and robotic research center. As you might imagine, Parent is a car buff who enjoys renovating vintage automobiles, such as the 1955 MG TF 1500 he refurbished while on a two-year assignment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We are not looking to eliminate cars, just reinvent them," Parent declares.

    He says the latest electricity-powered model "is just a beginning." In the next three decades, he envisions roads populated by curvy, futuristic-looking CyberCars. Claims Parent, "soon you'll be able to order a [Cyber]Car on your cell phone."

    The traveling public seems to be warming up to a driverless future. At a recent two-week-long test drive in Antibes, more than 3,000 people were able to take free rides in a CyberCar. Although some passengers might at first be nervous about cruising around town in a machine with no living navigator, Parent says, "in the end they will trust our technology." This gives new meaning to the term designated driver.

    From the Dec. 06, 2004 issue of TIME Europe magazine

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    #1 Areometer, Dec 1, 2004
  2. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    I imagine the taxi drivers' union won't be happy! Certainly if one can hop in at the airport or train station and select a local hotel, restaraunt or whatever easily, this could be a really great thing. I hope their NAV DVD is free of errors. ;-)
     
    #2 bruceha_2000, Dec 2, 2004
  3. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    That is pretty cool stuff though it really does look like an oversized version of a Lego car. I would love to hop into one and tool around town! Think of the reduction in downtown city congestion if people could take the train from the suburbs and then employ something like this tiny thing to move around. That would be awesome! Even the number and size of the taxis alone seem to clog up downtown Chicago. I hate driving down there just for the traffic. But something like this, that would be great.
     
    #3 TonyPSchaefer, Dec 2, 2004
  4. heliotropehead

    heliotropehead New Member

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    Save the horses!!!
     
    #4 heliotropehead, Dec 2, 2004
  5. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    If it does away with drunk drivers, I'm all for it. I can't think of a Nav error worse than some drunk piece of s*** purposely going the wrong way on a busy Interstate, plowing into a minivan full of kiddies, then getting a piece of s*** lawyer to claim he was too drunk to understand his constitutional rights, thus getting him off the hook.

    I love horsies, they're strong, majestic, and very friendly too. Hard to believe there was a time when horses were the living equivalent of the Kenworth, and were literally worked to death.

    Never mind the stench and, of course, disease, from all the manure they left behind, how about when they keeled over and were left to rot? Poor things.
     
    #5 jayman, Dec 2, 2004
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