Self-steering cars are on their way
No more need for steering wheels, says inventor
Redundant steering wheel
The company has developed new and innovative software, which uses servo commands from a car’s navigation system to actuate an electro-hydraulic steering mechanism, in the manner of a yacht auto-pilot. The new software has been installed in a number of test vehicles, which are currently undergoing trials in southern Italy.
The satellite navigation systems of the test cars have been upgraded to respond to location data generated by differential GPS (dGPS). dGPS uses ground-based trigonometrical ‘fixes’ to enhance the plotting capabilities of regular satellite tracking. Such is the accuracy of dGPS, said the company, that, on any stretch of road within the test locality, the position of the test vehicles can be determined to within plus or minus 50 centimetres.
The steering-wheels of the test vehicles have been "strategically disabled", yet so well does the software meet its objectives that the vehicles are able to navigate on public roads between a number of fixed points without receiving any steering input from the driver, who controls only the brake and accelerator pedals.
"The steering wheels are for show only," said Parodia’s technical director, Pesce d’Aprile, adding: "It might prove disconcerting to other road users if they were to see a car approaching in which, for example, the driver had his arms folded. Instead the driver simulates steering action in the manner of a toy car on a kiddies’ merry-go-round."
It was also decided to retain the steering wheel to enable the driver to deal with unforeseen circumstances. By pressing a floor-mounted, foot-operated switch, the driver can instantly re-engage the steering mechanism.
A spokesperson for the Federazione Autostradi et Via Munizipali d’Italia said of the trials: "The technology appears to work, but the acceptance of it by the police and other authorities has yet to be considered."
On the other hand, someone might be pulling your leg...
Pesce d'Aprile
8 years ago i worked for chrysler in detroit. at the time they were testing cars round the durability tracks using washing machine sized gps computers strapped into the drivers seat with mechanical connections to steering wheel, brake and throttle. military spec gps had ground based radio triangulation for back up. computer control room controlled about 5 cars at once which pulled off to the petrol station and less frequently the garage when needed. pretty cool. no reason why it wont happen to road cars eventually.
Couple of points though:
1 - DGPS is still only as good as the number of satellites available at any given time, and even then it has to be more than is available for standard GPS location and that is rare
2 - I'd love to see a GPS steering controlled car in an urban environment. Anyone remember how poor AM radio signal coverage was when you got in amongst tall buildings, plus poor mobile signals. Now imagine your GPS signal bouncing all over the place, the car wouldn't have a clue
3 - How long would you have to react if you're cruising at 70mph behind a similarly controlled vehicle and the satellite coverage drops to a point where it can't position your car.
4 - Considering we can still have minor prangs in cars and we can see where we are, how would you feel having control handed to something than can only place you to +/-0.5m
5 - How does it know how big your car is?
Rick
p.s. I know the article is an April Fool but as francisb says, it could well happen at some point. Most of the futurist films these days have cars moving on tracks with little input from us mere humans.
Personally, I would only trust it as long as it would take me to rip it from the dashboard.
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