Re: GM Exec Says Driving is Dead
- From: Dave Head <rally2xs@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:10:03 GMT
While I don't believe it's gonna happen within about the next 30 years, the
best thing to come out of it would be that the cops would be dead in the water
with respect to harrassing travelers based on the behaviour of their vehicles
on the road.
Dave Head
On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:31:55 -0700, Scott in SoCal <scottenaztlan@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/02/Autos/ford_cartech_fortune/index.htm.
GM exec: Driving is dead
The day of riding in a car that drives itself down a Smart Highway is
rapidly approaching.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Bob Lutz
May 3, 2006: 1:54 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Bob Lutz has held top jobs at Ford and Chrysler.
Currently he is vice chairman of General Motors. This interview
originally ran in the June 14, 2004 issue of FORTUNE.
Recently I sat down with the editors of FORTUNE for a chat, and a
question they asked was, "Are we anywhere near the day you can climb
into a car on Long Island, program it to take you to your niece's
house in Chicago, hit enter and execute, and after the first 100
yards, once you hit a thoroughfare, the car takes over automatically
and you just sit back and enjoy the ride?"
It is a question I dread. But I had to answer truthfully: "Absolutely.
We are without a doubt near that day."
You could hear a pin drop in the room. Here was a self-affirmed car
guy telling a roomful of journalists, with a straight but not
altogether unpained face, that sooner rather than later we'll be able
to take the driver right out of the driving equation.
But look, we're already doing it with airplanes.
Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk takes off at an air base in the U.S.,
climbs to 50,000 feet, flies to Australia, makes an approach and lands
at an Australian air base, taxis up to the ramp, where there is a
grandstand filled with military officials, and shuts itself off - with
no human pilot.
Is the road environment more complicated than the sky at 50,000 feet?
You bet. When we drive, we have only two dimensions of freedom, rather
than three, and there are a lot more vehicles on the roadways than
airplanes in the sky. But this is definitely coming.
Progress here is being driven by the exponential growth of computing
power and the dramatic decline in the cost of data storage. Those
factors are crucial because cost is a critical issue for vehicles.
We've got to be able to develop systems that are "fail safe" at an
affordable price.
The technology is here
The necessary technology is already here. We have radar technology
that can be tied to cruise control and brakes, which automatically
adjusts your speed based on following distance and pre-programmed
settings. It's still a little bit raw, but it does work great. The
technology can allow cars and trucks to follow each other in very
closely spaced caravans.
Also, suppliers are developing side-vision-based lane-departure
warning systems that read the edge of the road and the white lines.
And the next-generation global positioning satellite (GPS) system is
going to get you down from accuracy in yards to accuracy in inches.
All the technology combined will allow us to implement so-called Smart
Highway systems, without having to do what we once feared would be
necessary, which is to tear up every highway in order to bury wires
under the pavement. With the next-generation GPS system, we won't have
to change the road infrastructure one iota.
GPS can also coordinate speed with location. Let's say you're in a
state with a 75-mph limit and you cross into a state with a 65-mph
limit. GPS knows that and can adjust your speed accordingly. It will
be able to read and pinpoint on-ramps and turnoffs, based on software
programmed into the car's receiver and on the accurate position
reading.
With radar-based automatic distance-sensing systems, imaging and
lane-adherence technology, and the GPS system, we basically have the
enablers to do fully autonomous driving.
It's not out of the question to imagine that someday soon you'll be
able to start the car, punch in the appropriate settings, then swivel
the front seats around and play cards and eat lunch as if you're
riding on a train. All in perfect comfort and safety, all the way to
that niece's place in Chicago.
Of course, as a driving enthusiast, I think all that is something of a
disgrace. But it's a necessary disgrace. It will help alleviate a lot
of traffic congestion and prevent a lot of accidents, assuming the
system doesn't break down for any reason. And it's an idea whose time
has just about come.
If pressed to estimate just how far away that time is, I'd say a
working system is ten years out, implementation maybe 20 years.
By then, I guess I could just be content to ride my motorcycle if I
feel the need for speed that I am allowed to control myself.
- Prev by Date: Re: Locate your parked vehicle
- Next by Date: Backups
- Previous by thread: Re: GM Exec Says Driving is Dead
- Next by thread: Re: GM Exec Says Driving is Dead
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
