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When you think of a self-driving car, you probably think of Google’s little project. And exciting as that is, we still have to wait a long time for pay-off. And even then, you can bet it’ll be pricey. Researchers in the UK are working on their own version of the tech, and it stands to be a lot cheaper. Maybe as cheap as £100.
RobotCar, a tricked-out Nissan Leaf, is a project currently under development by researchers at the University of Oxford, and the minds behind it are giving themselves an extra little challenge: it’s gotta be cheap. So far, the system, which uses stereo cameras and lasers, runs about £5,000, but researchers are hoping they can knock that down by a factor of ten, and then all the way down to £100.
Professor Paul Newman put it this way to the Telegraph:
Really, we do need to solve the engineering challenges of not relying on expensive sensors, but relying on cheap sensors. But doing some really smart things with those cheap sensor feeds.
At prices like that, you’re going to have to make some compromises, and chief among them is that RobotCar will need you to teach it a bit. As you drive your RobotCar to work or to the store, the car’s systems will be keeping a close eye on the route and, eventually, will know enough to take over for you. RobotCar’s been tested on some private roads, and with a go-ahead from the UK Department of Transportation, it should get some public road time soon. Hopefully it works out, because £100 for trouble-free commutes sound preeeetty nice. [The Telegraph via The Verge]
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For really really really cheap sensors just duct tape a cat to each corner.
And soon as you hear the scream, apply the brakes.
When the screaming stops, apply the brakes harder.
Cruel bastard
Wasn’t this article already posted a few days ago? http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/02/the-british-are-coming-and-the-cars-driving-itself/
More to the point (although yours is correct), what’s with the sloppy editing, title says £150, article says £100; just hope the kit that comes out is more accurate than this piece of journalism.
At least the other duplicate article on the PS4 posted and acknowledged it was a duplicate, linking itself to the original. You make a good point yourself though; in my search to point out the fact it was a re-post, I’d totally missed that!
herein lies the important question though….
would you rather trust your life to £5000 worth of amazing sensors or £100 worth of wuanhunglau cheap ass sensors?
How many people though, realistically, can afford to buy a car *and* an additional £5,000 worth of sensors? That’s more than my car is worth plus the cost of insurance (and as a young driver I can assure you that is not cheap..). If the £100 sensors do the job and are tested and approved to be safe to use, I’d trust my life to them no bother. At least if they killed me, I wouldn’t be around to complain about it!