RE: Auto-Pilot Audi TT Climbs Pikes Peak

[Bucket O Frogs]

I'll be impressed when it's rolling at full chat with 900bhp bellowing from under the bonnet

[dvance]

ridds said:

dvance said:

ridds said:

mikea4tdi said:

Looks impressive to me, references to big track are insulting to the tech in this car.
As others have said you coudlnt' do this through pre programming.
As to whats the point, I helped develop some of the lane guidance systems in 2000, using video to identify road boundaries and some trick algorithms to work out position attitute and curvature. This gave the car the ability to drive down the road by its self as long as it could pick out a lane edge. Added to that autonomous cruise control with radar it was pretty impressive.
Due to legislation etc we down graded the system to lane guide thats if you slowly veir out of lane without using your indicators it would nudge you back in again.
Next step was to integrate gps and using datastream feeds from other cars ahead, this was nearlly 10 years ago so not sure what they are using now.

I don't think it's anywhere near as advanced as it's making out to be. It hasn't got any fancy kit on it like the DARPA cars have. To me it purely looks like a predetermined route plotted in and then the kit interfaced with the cars controls.

Watching the steering it doesn't make any of the inputs as if it was "finding" it's way. I more suspect the route was driven a number of times by a human pilot, course plotted and then it trundled off up the hill using GPS assistance.

The value added to science for that would be zero, and I really think VAG would not pile money in such a project with no benefit whatsoever. Neither would Stanford put its name behind it So yeah, I think you're wrong on this one.

Fair enough, they'll have to have done something magic to hide all the lasers/scanners etc. All the DARPA cars I have seen have been COVERED in kit and half the boot full of PCs, now I know tech moves on fast but to fit it all in the boot of a TT and have 4 aerials??

gizmag

And from here, quoting the builders of the car....

World car fans

Autonomous TTS designer Raul Cenan said:

Meanwhile a differential GPS system with a margin of error under two centimeters keeps the car on course.

You're probably right in this case, however, keep in mind, this vehicle was not built to distinguish other cars etc -- just to drive up a road and collect data on handling and what not -- so it's not nearly as sophisticated as the DARPA cars. I would imagine that two video feeds would be able to give it stereoscopic vision which along with the very precise GPS positioning would be enough so that it navigates up the hill successfully.

[TVRWannabee]

jains15 said:

I love the idea of this and the tech is astounding, but imagine getting into your Alfa of a morning and seeing the "Driven by Microsoft" logo on the dash

Do you want to brake?

Yes / No / Cancel

[Huff]

..or pick up a passenger and have to restart the car for changes to take effect

[JonRB]

TVRWannabee said:

jains15 said:

I love the idea of this and the tech is astounding, but imagine getting into your Alfa of a morning and seeing the "Driven by Microsoft" logo on the dash

Do you want to brake?

Yes / No / Cancel

"Windows is busy right now and cannot complete your braking request"

[ridds]

dvance said:

ridds said:

dvance said:

ridds said:

mikea4tdi said:

Looks impressive to me, references to big track are insulting to the tech in this car.
As others have said you coudlnt' do this through pre programming.
As to whats the point, I helped develop some of the lane guidance systems in 2000, using video to identify road boundaries and some trick algorithms to work out position attitute and curvature. This gave the car the ability to drive down the road by its self as long as it could pick out a lane edge. Added to that autonomous cruise control with radar it was pretty impressive.
Due to legislation etc we down graded the system to lane guide thats if you slowly veir out of lane without using your indicators it would nudge you back in again.
Next step was to integrate gps and using datastream feeds from other cars ahead, this was nearlly 10 years ago so not sure what they are using now.

I don't think it's anywhere near as advanced as it's making out to be. It hasn't got any fancy kit on it like the DARPA cars have. To me it purely looks like a predetermined route plotted in and then the kit interfaced with the cars controls.

Watching the steering it doesn't make any of the inputs as if it was "finding" it's way. I more suspect the route was driven a number of times by a human pilot, course plotted and then it trundled off up the hill using GPS assistance.

The value added to science for that would be zero, and I really think VAG would not pile money in such a project with no benefit whatsoever. Neither would Stanford put its name behind it So yeah, I think you're wrong on this one.

Fair enough, they'll have to have done something magic to hide all the lasers/scanners etc. All the DARPA cars I have seen have been COVERED in kit and half the boot full of PCs, now I know tech moves on fast but to fit it all in the boot of a TT and have 4 aerials??

gizmag

And from here, quoting the builders of the car....

World car fans

Autonomous TTS designer Raul Cenan said:

Meanwhile a differential GPS system with a margin of error under two centimeters keeps the car on course.

You're probably right in this case, however, keep in mind, this vehicle was not built to distinguish other cars etc -- just to drive up a road and collect data on handling and what not -- so it's not nearly as sophisticated as the DARPA cars. I would imagine that two video feeds would be able to give it stereoscopic vision which along with the very precise GPS positioning would be enough so that it navigates up the hill successfully.

I just want people to be aware that it's no more impressive than asking a car to drive round a long empty race track on it's own. It's a bit of a shameless marketing exercise compared to what some people are doing (e.g. DARPA) which doesn't seem to get a mention on here. Until this thread of course....

[hairykrishna]

ridds said:

I just want people to be aware that it's no more impressive than asking a car to drive round a long empty race track on it's own. It's a bit of a shameless marketing exercise compared to what some people are doing (e.g. DARPA) which doesn't seem to get a mention on here. Until this thread of course....

It's the same group from Stanford who won the original DARPA grand challenge and who did very well in the urban challenge.

[smtk]

Taken automated cars as a given, following on from that why are they still using a basic car lay out?

How about 4 wheel independent steering? surely that would make it unbeatable.

As the only driver in our family, automated cars don't seem such a bad idea I could of used one on the way back from the lake district to London .....zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZ