The Autonomous Car…Car Bots Will Save Lives

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, Urban Challenge occurs every year and last year at the time of the event, I was still doing some training for Intel and was able to show the race live on my Tablet PC (which was great to carry around without having an “open pizza box” notebook to fumble around with) in the store I visited that day to train. A Chevy Tahoe nicknamed "Boss," engineered by a team drawn from GM, Continental Teves, Caterpillar, and Carnegie-Mellon University, won the event, and “Junior” from Intel and Stanford University was second. The cars can be a little more friendly too than an upset motorist when determining the right of way. DARPA is also well known for some serious medical advancements in prosthetics.

Part of this technology is already working it’s way in to new cars. One benefit of having an autonomous car is that it could be a great help with seniors needing to get around and also in the fight against drunk driving. Believe it or not, that was the first comment almost made by all was the fact that someone drinking would not be behind the wheel or at least in control. Along with other electronic devices, the car is looking to be the next automated assistant for seniors and others. The brains behind “Junior” are 2 Quad Core processors, just like the ones you buy off the shelf in the store. Here are a couple videos from last year. This November it will be interesting once more to see the progress made. BD

“Imagine the scene: You're driving your car to an office building in New York City, five minutes from a job interview. No worries. You have already dialed into the car's memory the parking garage where it's going to stay, and prepaid the bill. You shut the door. And off it goes. Driverless. And the chances of the car getting into an accident while it travels five or six treacherous city blocks are less than if the hopeful job applicant had tried to park it himself under time pressure.”