BMW is claiming the lead in the race to perfect the ‘autonomous driver’. BMW say that it has no intention of taking the controls from the driver in ordinary circumstances, but in the case of an emergency the car will detect an issue and take control. I say don’t wait for an emergency take control now!
Don’t get me wrong I love driving, but not on the motorway for hour after hour following a line of other people who have probably got better things to occupy their time. I say let the car take control on the motorway and let me get on with answering my emails.
Whilst the computer programmes to control the car may be still in development it seems that much of the technology that can provide the information for the software to process is already available. For example the vehicles position in the road can be determined by GPS in conjunction with sensors currently used for lane departure systems. The cars distance from the car in front can be judged by the radar in active cruise control and blind spot detectors can judge other factors around the vehicle.
It seems possible that one of the first uses for this clever combination of technologies might be to feed all the information into the cars computer allowing it to build up a detailed picture of the cars position in the road and other vehicles in the vicinity such that in an emergency the car could safely change lanes and bring the car to a halt on the hard shoulder.
I think they should press on with developing the robot car. I can imagine that if they lined the major roads with sensors that our cars could use to track and kept all the clever stuff above in reserve in case something went wrong then a monotonous motorway drive could turn into quality time with the family or time to catch up. I would look to drive my luxury people carrier, complete with captain’s chairs, table, TV and refreshments to the motorway at which point I would select auto pilot and retire to the comfort of the rear. Frankly I wouldn’t mind if they had to restrict the top speed to an economical 55 miles per hour because I would have plenty of things to occupy my time – in fact, however long the journey took I would probably find myself getting there before I wanted to (halfway through a film or still with some emails to ping). Whatever, I am sure I would arrive far less hyped than I do now after hours of intense concentration nose to tail at 70 (ahem) mph on the M1.
I think there is an emergency, how many man hours are wasted by people sitting behind a wheel on the motorway? Bring on the robotic car!
