Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.
“This is not science fiction,” Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview…
Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion…
If people are interested.
And if you get past Congress, the CPSC, and 14,000 lawyers waiting with product liability claims.
This will be a “Baby Boomer” necessity. I am 58 and my 94 year old uncle still drives. They don’t like to give it up!
But where is my flying car that I was promised when I was a zit faced jr. high student?
🙁
GM is the #1 innovator in auto show technology.
They have an entire 4-person division dedicated to fiberglass mockups of drive-by-wire cars powered by fuel cells. This group receives 1 cent for every 1000 dollars GM spends on lobbying against greenhouse gas restrctions.
This sort of automation is inevitable and WILL be in our future. My own take is that it will require putting these vehicles on tracks. That makes for a much easier engineering effort…
http://www.PRTProject.com
By putting them on tracks, you also solve the energy issue…all electric and no more large batteries to lug around.
gary
I believe Audi has had this feature since 1987.
That’s a good call on the B.S., Eidard.
As long as G.M likes to outsource things, I suggest they torture test the vehicles at a certain intersection in India (you all know which one).
Congress and the military is buying heavily into the B.S.
Section 220 of the FY2001 defense authorization act (H.R. 4205/P.L. 106-398 of October 30, 2000) states, “It shall be a goal of the Armed Forces to achieve the fielding of unmanned, remotely controlled technology such that (1) by 2010, one-third of the aircraft in the operational deep strike force aircraft fleet are unmanned; and (2) by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles are unmanned.”
Driverless cars? It’s called a parking lot!
In the meantime, in ten years it looks like GM will be offering crappy cars given the energy bill that just passed Congress. I hope their lobbyists will be able to fix things.
#6, this technology is indeed appropriate for the military where it would actually cut costs and save lives. DARPA challenges in the last few years and the unmanned aircraft have already proven themselves.
What I find wrong is application of such expensive technology to the everyday people where it is really not needed. Danger is that it will be becoming mandatory. And for that Big Three will lobby greatly as it is a new innovative way to sell you more expensive stuff, while completely unnecessary: we already each possess vastly better navigation and driving computer in our head. Even the bone-headed ones, even the bone-headed ones with the cell-phone in hand.
@#7, the same device in our head can be used to make great cars even with the stricter regulations, but US car makers avoid using it… Only invention they want is “how can we sell more expensive cars” and have so far successfully suckered Americans to it (Muscle cars, SUV’s, useless luxury, navigation systems,… self-driving cars,… all from the same garbage can) while pleading unable to make cleaner, more efficient and more reliable cars.
So will I still need a drivers license, or can I just send the car to the daycare to pick up the kids? Or when the baby is having trouble sleeping, can I put the kid in the car and tell the car to go to Indiana and come back? Use it as an opportunity to get some sleep.
I guess for the gamblers and alcoholics who get in trouble for leaving their kids in the car as they head to casino/bar, this could be a real boon to them.
Also, this is GM, what happens at 80k miles when parts start falling off the car as you are driving down the highway?
Also, the last GM I had experience with would just mysteriously stop every few hundred miles, then you would pull over to the side of the road, then start it up and all would be fine again. Mechanics were mystified.
Car capable of driving themselves from destination to destination have been around for a decade now, but this… As a consumer product… Just wow, and all within 24 hours of microsoft announcing their intent to build skynet.
GM has had loads of great ideas over the years. They’ve just failed to implement most of them. The stuff they did put into production was done too shoddily to work properly.
GM plus Microsoft plus self driving cars equals Blue Windscreen of Death.
A know nothing computer would be an improvement over most of today’s human drivers. My commute is only 5 miles but on an average morning some one tries to run over me at least twice. Thankfully, my car has a lot of horse power, a manual transmission and a great suspension.
What if I change my mind on where to go? What if I just want to take a day trip? I have to have a destination every time? Man I am going to keep my 79 vespa in top shape to last the coming years. Damn technology
What, and put an end to SPEEDING AND DRUNK DRIVING ??? Is GM NUTS ???
#2 John – You don’t have one? I thought every one did.
While I love the idea of being able to relax and read on long trips, I still would much rather drive around.
I have always felt that the impediment to automated driving had nothing to do with the availability of technology. It has been available for some time. The core issue is liability. Suppose your automated car exceeds the speed limit. Who is charged with that violation? Suppose it gets into an accident. Are you at fault?
I don’t think it’ll float. Think of all the lost revenue there would be from all the tickets issued, not to mention all the bureaucrats that would lose their job, as they are part of the Law Enforcement/Court – Industrial Complex.
Besides, they already have this… It’s called PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!
Really? you mean I’ll have to get rid of my Porsche? I think it’s time to vacate this planet and return home.
Gosh, if GM could only expell as much energy on building quality cars that get good fuel mileage.Seem to remember them creating the first electric car then Toyota actually made it a reality.”Like a Rock” that’s what their sales are doing.
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
i think what he meant was GM could release one within a decade of some other company releasing it. GM sucks
I hope these systems have better sense than the idiot who trusted his GPS onto train-tracks and an incoming train… read this blog for details.
All in all, a very funny joke on themselves… GM won’t be around in ten years to build this pipe dream.
Er….right. Every 3 years for the last 40+ years Popular Science runs the cover story about the flying car, personal jet pack or car that will drive itself. It’s a running joke.
I’ll just keep waiting…
#17
While I agree that many stand to lose quite a bit by an automatically driven car, let’s be clear that it is not public transportation. With automatic driving, I get to chose the time, place, other traveling companions and the vehicle in which I travel. I get none of those choices with public transportation.
Only you’ll probably need to first buy a gift card, at a GM store, to get it to go the pizza shop.
This is just GM stirring the PR pot. Just like NASA use to do a few times a year with photos from the Hubble satellite. It’s probably good news for GM’s stockholders. It keeps their moral up. But it’s not going to be very practical for a lot longer than 10 years. And would probably require nearly all cars being doing this, so a manual driver wouldn’t come along and throw a wrench in works of this utopia of the highway. So they’d have to have a “auto car” switchover date, forced upon everyone. Kind of like this upcomming HDTV deadline, forcing all americans to have a digital tuner by Feb 2009. Or you’ll not be watching “quality” Tv.
Mercedes and VW are also working on autonomous vehicle tech. You will be able to buy a Mercedes in the very near future with cruise control that can not only maintain a speed while accelerating and decelerating to accomodate traffic, it will also be able to keep the car in the lane (as long as there is at least one edge marked) without driver input.