Who's Driving Tonight?

Won’t it be great when our cars can be the designated driverand we’re not left drawing straws to see who can’t drink on a Saturday night? Whenthe wheel hub and bearing assembly are controlled by the car’s computer ratherthan a driver? It may have seemed like something out of a science fiction moviejust years ago (cough, cough iRobot), but this idea is becoming more of areality every day.

Google has been working on autonomous vehicles for a fewyears now, with several of their concepts already having logged over 160,000miles in test runs. And how many accidents have been reported? Zero. Relying onwhat I assume to be a combination of the GPS system, cruise control, as well assensors and cameras to detect other vehicles on the road, these cars have beentesting in a sort of “legal limbo”. That is until this month when Nevada passedthe first legislation that embraces what seems to be the future of theautomobile industry. The new rules, which will allow autonomous vehicle testingin the state, still require there to be an “operator” available in case of atechnical glitch. Yep, that means cars DD-ing you home will remain illegal fornow (so no napping in the backseat while your car drives you home from the bar).However, you will be able to talk on your cell phone.

This technology is already available in many newer modelcars. Companies like BMW and Audi have also been testing their self-drivingsystems which will probably appear for highway-only use in the coming years. The factthat Nevada recognizes this as the future and is adopting laws to aid itsdevelopment is pretty awesome, and I’m sure in time other states will followsuit.  But for now, we wait.

Finally, a Traffic Jam Assistant!

On Tuesday I joked about cars soon driving themselves consideringthey already know how to parallel park. It seems this idea isn’t as far off asI really expected because Audi just announced at CES that our wheel hub andbearing assembly might learn to drive themselves after all. They call it thedriver’s “Traffic Jam Assistant”, and it combines existing technology with newideas to add even more convenience to driving.

Have you ever been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic thatrequires you to pay constant attention to the road? Every day, twice a day? Youknow what I’m talking about, but Audi may have set the trend to end this dailyrush-hour struggle. Who knows, this may eventually even help solve the problemof traffic. Two wide-range scanning radar sensors on the vehicle will monitorthe surrounding area for other vehicles. A wide angle video camera will monitorthe lane markings and other objects in your vicinity, such as pedestrians andguardrails. Eight more ultrasonic sensors will monitor what’s directly infront, behind, or to the sides of your car. Add this to the existing adaptivecruise control and ah ha!, you have a Traffic Jam Assistant. They have evenmade adjustments in case you need to make an emergency maneuver such as the guyin front of you slamming on his brakes for no reason.

Audi’s Traffic Jam Assistant will operate between 0 and 37mph (that seems kind of fast to me..), but they say this will be completelysafe for use on expressways or in cities. When I first heard of this I thoughtit could cause more accidents because it’s new technology, but it appears theirgoal is to reduce or even eliminate injuries behind the wheel. Seems pretty coolto me, what do you think?