Monday, August 20, 2012
Shelley the self-driving car
The Dynamic Design Lab at Stanford University, California, and the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab have made a very speedy self-driving car.
Shelley – that’s the vehicle’s name – can drive up to 120mph and managed to complete a three-mile-long race track in less than 2minutes and 30seconds.
That’s impressive – and even more remarkable when you realise that all of this was done by using algorithms (complicated mathematical instructions to you and I).
Shelley has a boot-full of electronics which guide her and tell her when to brake, how tightly she needs to take a corner, and so on and so forth.
While it might seem this technology may be being tested to allow people in the future to be driven about by autonomous cars, the labs are actually working towards providing safety systems which will – for example – help motorists negotiate icy roads.
Before you start to get worried that machines will be taking over every aspect of our lives and will be better than humans at all the tasks we set them, don’t worry too much.
Apparently, although Shelley can drive at 120mph, that’s still a few seconds slower than a professional human racing car driver. Ha! Take that technology!
Photo © Ana Patricia Almedia via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: 120mph, brake, car, Dynamic Design Lab, icy roads, race track, safety, self-driving, Shelley, Stanford University, vehicle, Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab
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posted by Fuse @ 1:03 AM 
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