Who Is Driving.... Me or...???

[Truvalu]

BMW makes self-drive car


A new system by BMW could shortly make the self-driving car a reality. It's part of a raft of driver safety innovations just unveiled by the company.

BMW gave Yahoo! Cars a hands-on (or rather hands-off) demonstration of its next generation Active Cruise Control technology. Amazingly, it allows the car to follow the curve of the motorway without any driver input.

However, sensors in the steering wheel sound a warning if the driver removes his hands for more than a few seconds. But a BMW technician told us that the technology could, in future, allow complete automatic drive of a car.

Theoretically, a driver could simply input his destination into a satellite navigation unit, and the car will use existing cameras and sensors to drive there itself.

BMW also demonstrated a similar system that pulls the car over safely to a halt in the event of a driver heart attack on the motorway.

However, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome before the driver is made redundant. Dirk Wisselmann, a chief engineer of BMW's 'Connected Drive' technology, said: “We have to combine the strength of the human with the strength of the technological system. It must always be clear that [the driver] is responsible for the driving.”

“We still have some legal problems. If we avoid ten accidents nobody notices; if we cause one accident we get accused.”

The advanced cruise control system is still in development, so there's no word on a release yet, but figure on 2012 at least before it hits the 7 Series.

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/08102010/36/bmw-makes-self-drive-car-0.html

 

[freerider]

 

[Sankekur]

seriously officer it wasn't me it was the car.....

 

[moranor@axis]

if i wanted a car that drove itself i would just hire a cab or buy a horse...

 

[Fordkoppie]

What is next?
F1 drivers sitting on the pit wall with playstaion controls, becuse sitting in the car is too dangerous:banghead:
Call me ancient, but I hate all these electronic gismos in a car and dont want to go forward in that type of technology.
Suppose that is why i love my old e34 M5 that were still engineered in the old fasion way and does not consist of some computer whichcraft.
But that is just me.
On the other hand, it seems that moving forward in terms of technology have paid off in the medical field.

 

[Beast_Power]

Hope the operating system is not windows related, could be a scary experience if the system has to be rebooted, while it is doing the driving ?

 

[Nic_s]

Would anyone here actually trust the computer to drive the car for you?? I work with computers and software everyday and I can tell you now that I will never trust any computer to do anything for me where my life could be at risk.

A lot of modern airplanes can take off, fly and land at it's destination without any input from the pilot, but would you fly in such a plane if there is no pilot in it?

 

[saturnz]

I'm sure many aircraft crashes as well as motor vehicle crashes were because of human error.

I doubt a computer will do much worse than our own collective performance to date.

Also its interesting to note that an independant investigation into the Toyota recall in the USA found that the accidents were mainly as a result of driver error and not a manufacturing defect as such. Ofcourse this report didn't receive as much attention as the recall itself.