Driverless VW to Compete in DARPA 2007 - April 11th, 2007
At some point in our lives we’ve all experienced the ride from hell with a driver so horrible we’ve prayed for the car to just take over. The Volkswagen Passat 2.0TDI, a robotic car that went on display at London’s Science Museum on April 10, could have done just that.
The Passat uses two laser sensors as eyes (one front and one rear) to scan road conditions and surroundings at a range of up to 200 meters. The onboard computer than analyzes the informations and makes decisions based on the data. The software used to perform the calculations was developed in Hamburg, Germany by the Ibeo Automobile Sensor Company.
The VW will compete against other driverless vehicles in the sixty mile DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge in November. The team is optimistic about its chances in the third annual event, citing their innovative laser technology as an edge over their rivals especially in regards to object and environmental detection.
Proponents of driverless vehicles have predicted that robot-driven cars will be commonplace by 2030. The Volkswagen will go into limited production next year and could be a harbinger of things to come. In the mean time, if you’re betting on the DARPA challenge 2007, the VW team may be the dark horse to watch.
Posted on April 11th, 2007 by Shorty
Filed under: technology |
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