General Motors vehicles that drive themselves
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Chevrolet Tahoe

GM developing vehicles that drive themselves

Picture - Chevrolet Tahoe
A self-driving version is being developed

WARREN, Mich. - General Motors Corp., Carnegie Mellon University and other partner companies are developing a self-driving Chevrolet Tahoe to compete in the 2007 Urban Challenge competition, created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The DARPA Urban Challenge competition will be held Nov. 3 in the western United States. The unmanned Tahoe will have to navigate safely through a 60-mile urban area course with merging traffic, stop signs and busy intersections in less than six hours without any remote control by humans.

The Tahoe, named "Boss" after GM Research founder Charles F. Kettering, is equipped with computer controls for driving and several radars, lasers and cameras for situation assessment. Computer software has been developed to enable the vehicle to drive itself.

"Imagine a world where there are no car crashes and very little traffic congestion," said Larry Burns, GM vice president of R&D and strategic planning. "This world is close to being proven thanks to the rapid advancement of electronics and communications technology. We are actively developing cars that can drive themselves and the DARPA Urban Challenge provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our progress."

In addition to its premier sponsorship of the Tartan Racing Team, GM is working with Carnegie Mellon University on autonomous driving technologies through its collaborative research laboratory at the university in Pittsburgh. More information on the Tartan Team can be viewed at www.tartanracing.org.

According to Alan Taub, GM executive director of R&D, collaboration with universities and supplier partners is vital to the development of this technology.

"We have been working closely with Carnegie Mellon University for seven years in the development of information and communications technologies and are extremely pleased with the results we are seeing," said Taub. "Participating in a competition like the DARPA Urban Challenge strengthens our relationship."

In addition to GM and Carnegie Mellon University, the Tartan Team is supported by the following sponsors: Caterpillar; Continental AG; Intel; Google; Applanix; TeleAtlas; Vector; Ibeo; Mobileye; CarSim; CleanPower Resources; M/A-COM; NetApp; Vector; CANtech; and Hewlett Packard.

Information on the DARPA Urban Challenge is available at www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp.

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What do you think?  
"A world with no car crashes and very little traffic congestion"
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Readers comments:

Bob P :   I think the insurance aspect of this is interesting but I assume it will only be a system that is supplemental to the driver. I can't imagine that the car will not have a steering wheel and manual controls. So I guess it will not affect the insurance

Bruce K :   I like the idea and hope it is adopted soon. I think the big steps have already been taken with gps and the car that can park itself. Sensors will be able to tell if anything is too close in any direction and then the steering, acceleration and braking systems adapt to the situation. I'm sure this will be available fairly soon in various stages as it develops.

Tominator :   It is about time we get the drunks out from behind the wheel. Just hope it does not create more drunks or that the drunks do not mis program their destination. Also that gps system better be updated on a minute to minute basis as so many roads are not where they are supposed to be according to GPS. Just think, just one miscalculation and there they go accross the median and into oncoming traffic where road construction has not been reported. How about short term road or lane closures? How about trying to merge in when a lane is closed? Are you gong to sit there until there is space to get in? Are the other cars sensors going to reconize that you are sitting there waiting to merge in, or just leave you sit there? So the system will have to allow human intervention. Then since we will not be used to handling a vehicle, all of us will turn into 15 year old drivers on our first drive. Oh well, it is progress. Got to happen sometime. Does it sense when you need fuel and stop at the right pump with the best price? Better yet does it pay for the fuel? Since it is there to prevent accidents, will our insurance cost be reduced or increased because of possible glitches that cause even more accidents? Interesting and I hope it works.

Bobby :   I'm not sure this will happen exactly. I think there will be features that will be developed but I think people like to drive their cars and to be in charge.

Jennie Hibbert :   I don't think they're going to develop a system to back our fifth wheel into a space any time soon.

Ron M :   Volkswagen has the same idea for the Volkswagen Golf, this is a quote from a European newspaper about the prototype: "The Golf deploys electronic 'eyes' that use radar and laser sensors in the grille to 'read' the road and send the details back to its computer brain, while a sat-nav system tracks its exact position with pin-point precision to within an inch".

John M :   I find it difficult to believe but I wouldn't have believed modern GPS systems either. I guess it's based around a GPS system with sensors in all directions.

 
 

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