Robotic Prius takes itself for a spin around SF | News - Cutting Edge - CNET News Future of intelligent highway, your transportation vehicle self driving to its intended destination safely, while reading your morning paper? This Robotics Prius can do just that. ===================================================== An unusual motorcade made its way across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge early one morning last week: a silver Toyota Prius, complete with police escort and camera crew, but with no driver at the wheel. The robotic Prius was the invention of Anthony Levandowski, 28, a computer engineer who lives in San Francisco, works in Silicon Valley, and built the so-called "Pribot" in his spare time. "Some people like to work on hot rods, boats, or airplanes," Levandowski said afterward. "I love robots." Pribot's real-world test started on September 7 at Pier 7, a nondescript slice of San Francisco's often-foggy waterfront, around 7:30 a.m. The autonomous vehicle drove along the Embarcadero, took a right on Harrison Street, turned onto the bridge itself, and exited at Treasure Island.
I say, a squirrel wouldn't stand a chance. I would be happy with a forward facing radar that when I hold the SET on the Cruise Control for 5 seconds it would Sync the speed to the car ahead of me, and calculate the safe braking distance. C.Rickey leaving his work email and cell phone # on a public board --- totally freaks me out.
NO! As a kid I was always afraid of the future of driving and the possibility that I never may be driving at all and that it may be a robot doing all the work! Sometimes the best part of my day is when I'm driving with the windows open and an awesome song blasting on the radio! I hope this isn't the beginning of an auto trend.
Self-Driving cars are Orwellian. In the early 1900s, owning a car was about the FREEDOM to go anywhere you want. Today, it still is. (yeah, I know the self-driving car will go where I ask it to go, but I don't want to "ask" it to go somewhere. I wan't to drive myself.)
this is a wonderful work in progress. in it's current state i see it being usable for elderly and military use (if attacked and told to "go" it will turn around and backtrack)... just my ideas.
I like it because it addresses driver augmentation systems and puts the technology on the street. This was a bold step that makes driver augmentation systems more practical and acceptable where it needs to be, on the street. But it also show the problem with current detailed navigation systems. Those huge assemblies on the roof are obviously not what we need. IMHO,
