Sci/Tech Cars that drive themselves 'on motorways in 10 years'

[phyrex1an]

Researchers from Berlin's Free University said self-driven cars could be used in controlled environments such as airports as soon as 2016.

They said that removing the steering wheel from in front of unpredictable humans would cut accidents and help the environment.

Professor Raul Rojas, who led the research, foretold: "In the future it will be forbidden for safety reasons for people to drive cars.

"The cars of today are the horses of yesterday. In five to 10 years the technology could be applied in private areas like airports, factories or warehouses.

"On motorways, in 10 to 20 years. In cities, the obstacles could be removed in 20-30 years."

To prove Prof Rojas' point, the team unveiled the fruits of their work on the "Made in Germany (MIG)" vehicle, which uses cameras, lasers, heat sensors and satellite navigation - even while inside tunnels - to "see" other vehicles and pedestrians and respond to traffic lights.

Cars that drive themselves 'on motorways in 10 years'

Cars which drive themselves could be on the motorways in 10 years, scientists said.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Jesus4Lyf]

Cars are a poor encapsulation for movement, because traffic lights are a poor implementation of intersection (lots of exposure to implementation details, like having to wait).

Cars are superfluous. Give us travellators everywhere, and we have a much better system.
This guy is shortsighted.

 

[Azlier]

Or portal guns.

 

[Slapshot136]

Or portal guns.

that would potentially be more dangerous then driving

 

[Sevion]

Hello!? Portal Licenses! :3 Portal Ed as well!

 

[Slapshot136]

Hello!? Portal Licenses! :3 Portal Ed as well!

those would work just as well as.. driver licenses stopping idiots from driving

 

[Sevion]

Well the thing is with Drivers Licenses don't do that because once you pass once you basically don't have to test again.

 

[Azlier]

Cars are a lot more complicated to use than portals, you know. The most complicated thing you have to know about portals is speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.

 

[Hatebreeder]

Cars are a lot more complicated to use than portals, you know. The most complicated thing you have to know about portals is speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.

what about Infinate portal loop and infinate accelleration?

Makes you more than just "one" with the next thing you crash into.

 

[Slapshot136]

infinate accelleration?

no such thing, even with portal guns

I think you meant "terminal velocity"

either way, with a car you have to physically run into something, while with a portal gun you can just make things fall on stuff from far away

also, you can break stuff without damaging your portal gun, while wrecking things without wrecking your car is a bit harder

 

[Jedimindtrixxx]

yeah slapshot is right, once you hit a certain speed, aka terminal velocity, you start falling at that constant speed and stop accelerating. you'd still splat once you leave though.

Spoiler

does this go hand in hand with hover cars and evil robots? cuz that would be EPIC

 

[Sevion]

Looks like that things has roller balls for wheels.

 

[Blackveiled]

Maybe have cars that drive themselves as an option, but I would like to drive myself. Thanks.

 

[Jedimindtrixxx]

it has no wheels! its a hovercar! has you never seen irobot? :3

 

[Slapshot136]

it's a sports car, it's supposed to be low (gives it a higher top speed by allowing more friction between the tires and the road at high speeds)

anyways, I think that they could also raise the speed limits by quite a bit if all the cars on the road were automatically operated (and also had a gps or something so that they knew in advance without relying on sight where there are cars), no more getting caught in traffic, etc. - it would be nice

 

[seph ir oth]

Pff, what's next, dogs that walk themselves? I'm not impressed.

 

[Sevion]

They already have that. They're called wild dogs.

 

[DDRtists]

I don't see it happening for a long long time, as most people aren't going to want self driven cars. I for one ENJOY driving, I don't want something to do it for me. I'd be cool for certain uses, such as airports and things like they said, but I don't see it going into use everywhere anytime soon.

 

[sqrage]

Do you even enjoy it in 1mph traffic or when really sleepy?

 

[DDRtists]

Do you even enjoy it in 1mph traffic or when really sleepy?

No, but that doesn't happen here enough to matter. Like I said, they could be useful in some places.