Robots shift car tech into high gear

(continued from previous page)

tests of semi-autonomous or convoy vehicles in the military," said Bill Klarquist, vice president of engineering at PercepTek, a robotics company that has contracts with the government, Ford and others.

PercepTek creates software for perception planning and control. That's what the car observes about its environment, and given that information, how it will travel. The company develops technology that helps vehicles manage their speed, follow the road and avoid obstacles.

Carmakers are headed toward total drive-by-wire systems, the route airlines took roughly a decade ago. That means they take the physical actions of the driver, such as pressing on the gas pedal, and turn them into digital messages for the car's central control system. Sensors measure how far the driver turns the steering wheel, for example, and translate that to a message to turn the wheels the appropriate amount. More sophisticated controls can be added for things like emergency braking and traction control.

"The issue is when you introduce new technology there's also the liability."

--Bill Klarquist, vice president of engineering, PercepTek

Many modern cruise control systems already use drive-by-wire throttle functions. With the addition of radar and laser sensors, a car can measure the distance between it and one ahead of it. That way, carmakers can add "adaptive cruise controls" that will regulate the speed of the car to maintain a safe distance between it and other vehicles.

Pricey models from Jaguar, Mercedes and Lexus are already offering that feature.

"Lane keeping" is another benefit of radar and laser sensors. The technology maintains a path down the center of the road and alerts the driver when the car begins to drift into another lane. The feature is already used in the trucking industry, but General Motors has said it plans to offer the feature in cars by 2007.

"The issue is when you introduce new technology there's also the liability. You normally see cars like this introduced in Europe and Japan first, and as they're embraced there, the bugs and characteristics are worked out," Klarquist said.

Adaptive cruise showed up in Germany long before it did in the United States, he said.

In Japan, carmakers have already been testing systems that warn drivers if they're drifting too far out of a lane or if they are about to hit something.

"I think technologically, we're within five to 10 years of having good systems for this," said Intel's Bradski.

PercepTek, which backed a robot in the Grand Challenge called Intelligent Design Systems, said that what it will gain from the race is the knowledge of how to use multiple sensors together for road and obstacle detection and avoidance. Commercially, that knowledge will inform what's called precrash applications.

With a combination of laser and radar sensors, a car system could "see" an oncoming collision, if an object ahead was stopping at a faster speed than expected, for example. By detecting how fast the car is traveling in relation to another on the road, the car's system could prepare airbags or cinch seat belts tighter. It could even regulate how the airbags inflate in relation to expected harm from the impact.

John Davidson, whose investment firm Mohr Davidow Ventures sponsored Stanley, predicts that within five years, sophisticated technology for collision avoidance will be in cars.

"Brake systems are already smart, and we'll slowly walk up this curve," Davidson said. "I'm skeptical about ever sitting in the backseat and pressing a button. But the technology has applicability in lots of commercial and industrial applications where autonomy is important."

Machine-learning technology has already touched industries like drug discovery, e-mail processing and financial forecasting. But technology is still a long way from allowing an autonomous machine to handle every unpredicted situation that pops up. "The robot must be able to learn from a situation and think it's way through the problem," Davidson said. "But there are other problems they have to solve, like dealing with contingencies. What if a computer dies?"

[Blito]

Virus could make car run over people.

I dunno if I like automated cars. If I virus
gets into a computer that's not too life
threatening but a car with AI? It could run over
people. Better not be using M$ software but
still.

[Blito]

Beware of the terminator

This all sounds great but we should be very
careful not to give too much power to Robots.
There's only so far you could go unless we could
upload ourselves and live forever that way.

[TV James]

Shhh!!!

That's the part of the programming DARPA doesn't want you to know about. Imagine an autonomous heavily armed robot that just sprints all over the battlefield running over enemy soldiers splat splat splat.

[Blito]

Virus could make car run over people.

I dunno if I like automated cars. If I virus
gets into a computer that's not too life
threatening but a car with AI? It could run over
people. Better not be using M$ software but
still.

[Blito]

Beware of the terminator

This all sounds great but we should be very
careful not to give too much power to Robots.
There's only so far you could go unless we could
upload ourselves and live forever that way.

[TV James]

Shhh!!!

That's the part of the programming DARPA doesn't want you to know about. Imagine an autonomous heavily armed robot that just sprints all over the battlefield running over enemy soldiers splat splat splat.

[appledragon]

Robot cars, OK, but bikes, vaccum cleaners, household bots for working gals

Yes, OK, so Mr. America gets his self-driving car, so he can continue to eat on the road and chat without having to think, but what about us working girls who come home to yet more housework at 8pm at night? Anybody out there going to give us the self-activating, safe, efficient housebot that does everything from cleaning floors, laundering to washing up the dishes? A real navigation challenge!
And it has to be able to tell between live and dead so as not to microwave the cat by accident.

[appledragon]

Robot cars, OK, but bikes, vaccum cleaners, household bots for working gals

Yes, OK, so Mr. America gets his self-driving car, so he can continue to eat on the road and chat without having to think, but what about us working girls who come home to yet more housework at 8pm at night? Anybody out there going to give us the self-activating, safe, efficient housebot that does everything from cleaning floors, laundering to washing up the dishes? A real navigation challenge!
And it has to be able to tell between live and dead so as not to microwave the cat by accident.

[ryanmickyv]

I wont pay for it.

Robot cars are cool.
So were computers until some hacker invented the first virus. My biggest problem is the cost... It would cost trillions to create a country wide system. But since our goverment spends money in "other" ways we dont have any money for important stuff, like education maybe.

[ryanmickyv]

I wont pay for it.

Robot cars are cool.
So were computers until some hacker invented the first virus. My biggest problem is the cost... It would cost trillions to create a country wide system. But since our goverment spends money in "other" ways we dont have any money for important stuff, like education maybe.