11/05/07

Robot Cars: Rise of the Machines

Robotic cars, autonomous vehicles that need no human driver, are coming.

A recent robot car competition, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge in Victorville, Calif., demonstrates remarkable advances in self-piloted vehicle technology.

The vehicles were required to navigate 60 miles of an unfamiliar urban environment as quickly as possible.

First to finish the maze was Carnegie Mellon's "Boss," a robotic driver-less Chevy Tahoe.

The course, completed start-tp-finish with no human guidance, included 19 missions.

The cars had to park at predetermined locations, traverse both offroad and onroad conditions, obey traffic regulations, avoid collisions with moving robotic and manned cars, merge into traffic, change lanes, and recognize and obey regulatory signs and signals.

Six robocars out of 35 finalists completed the course within the six hour time limit.

The automated autos are loaded with lasers and radar, stereo cameras, GPS receivers, and computers.

Absolutely incredible.

Although General Motors was a sponsor, automakers are slow to embrace new technology.

Many leading car companies feel that the driving experience is central to their business model. How will this technology fit with the self-image marketing in which billions have been invested?

In my opinion, this is the same short range, narrow thinking which has held back the automobile industry for 100 years. The real potential of robotic cars is enormous.

Human driving wastes resources and creates gridlock, it is an obstacle to current and future prosperity.

Yes, automated highways will save lives and fuel, but most importantly they will usher in a "next new thing" for the world economy.

Robot vehicles are one aspect of a sea change coming to the global auto market.

Those who cling to the old push marketing model, (build barges and buy advertising to move them), are an endangered species!

In the near future robotic vehicles will be primarily used by the military.

The world is still at least a decade away from driver-less autos, but change is coming. Manufacturers who ignore the pull marketing model embraced by Toyota, do so at their peril.

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