Driver's ed for robot racers

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Stanford's team has also built simulation software to test its algorithms in a virtual world, a much less dangerous way to try out new software for robotic city-driving, according to Montemerlo. For example, in a simulation of 20 cars all running the same copy of the software, driving in a figure 8 with a two-way stop sign, the robots eventually get stumped. "You can't test 20 robotic vehicles, but you learn a lot about the software from the simulation," he said.

Also this year, the car has an electronic power-steering system, unlike the hydraulic system of Stanley, which will give the vehicle more control in an urban environment. The electronic steering booster gives the Stanford engineers more control over how much torque the car can exert over the steering wheel, for example, and that's much more necessary in a crowded environment of city streets.

Despite DARPA's mission of advancing robotics for military vehicles via its challenges and grants, the Stanford team is highly focused on advancing AI for consumer cars. More than 40,000 people die in vehicular accidents every year, and Thrun's team believes that if it can build effective autonomous controls for cars, it could significantly reduce that number.

Since Stanford won the 2005 Grand Challenge, DARPA-sponsored races have become much higher profile. This year's competitors are stronger as a result. New contestants include a handful of defense contractors and universities such as MIT, known for its AI department. AI stalwarts like University of California at Berkeley, Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon will also be among the contenders.

Also, more universities have teamed with car manufacturers for this race, much like Stanford did with Volkswagen in 2005. Carnegie Mellon, for example, has partnered with General Motors.

"The level of competition is definitely getting tougher every year," said Montemerlo.

 

Correction: This article misstated the number of fatalities attributed to car crashes each year. The correct number is about 40,000.

[demner]

Seatbelts

You wanna know how to really reduce the number of fatalities on the roads?? Doesn't take a rocket scientist (or roboticist) to know the answer - seatbelts.

[Philo\]

Seatbelts, cellphones, and active communications

Most people do wear seatbelts. What's more, it only affects the saftey of the person who chooses not to. Joe may die from not wearing a seatbelt, but he's not more likely to cause an accident. From my daily experience, drivers on cellphones are much more likely to cause an accident. I can't wait until they get robotic vehicles!

Also, the future of automated highways will probably have cars with systems like those described in the article, but I also see them having communicating with the vehicles around them. Your car may be able to notice another car changing lanes and react, but it's better if the two cars communicate and cooperatively plan their movements. You'll always need the automated system to deal with cars that can't communicate and unexpected circumstances, but communication will greatly expand safety.