The Ultimate Cruise Control

Self-Driving Cars Are Closer Than You Think.

One of the coolest things in the movie Minority Report was the self-driving car that docked at the living room wall and did all the work in the high speed chases. It may be a while before we have the vertical roads, but the self-driving car is getting closer to a dealer near you. General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Volvo, and even Google are among the many companies testing driverless cars. The most optimistic estimates say we could even see them on the road before 2020.

Self-driving (SD) cars may not be for everyone. We have a pre-programmed desire for control, and it may be hard for some of us to hand over control of a two-ton box hurtling through traffic at 70 mph to a computer. Especially when we know how prone our personal computers are to crashing. So who is clamoring for a self-driving car? According to JD Power’s 2012 US Automotive Emerging Technologies Study, it’s about who you’d expect… 18-37 year-old males living in urban areas. The desire for SD drops when the cost is factored in. While 37% of survey subjects wanted SD, the number dropped to 20% when they were told it would cost $3000.

Most SD technologies concentrate on keeping the individual car safe, using a hardware package including radar sensors, cameras, laser scanners, ultrasonic sensors, drivers alert systems, and more. Others, such as the one designed by Carnegie Mellon University, rely on a distributed system that allows the cars to communicate with each other. While much safer and more reliable, it requires all the cars on the road to be outfitted for the system to work.

Many universities and research labs have been toying with SD technologies for years. The DARPA Grand Challenge, a race for driverless cars, started in 2004. (Interested in entering? First place prize is $2 million) But these are prototype systems on restricted and controlled courses. Commercial companies are working on their own commercial versions as well.

Google is the company that has been loudest on its SD development, a project they started in 2010. As of August, 2012, they reportedly have logged over 300,000 miles without an accident under computer control. (Their perfect driving record was only marred by being rear ended while stopped at a traffic light. We can all probably sympathize.)

Cadillac promises a SD car by 2015. Its “Super Cruise” system would be “capable of fully automatic steering, braking, and lane-centering in highway driving under certain optimal conditions.” Their current package would add about $5-10 thousand to the price of the car.

The technology isn’t the only thing that needs to be developed. Driving laws have to keep pace as well. Nevada may be leading the race on this aspect. In 2011 the state required the DMV to set regulations for autonomous vehicles, and in May 2012 it issued the first US license for a driverless vehicle to Google. It allows test-driving of SD vehicles, provided there is one person behind the wheel and one in the driver’s seat.

Of course, not all cars will be self-driving right off the bat, and for a while there will be a mix on the road. What will that look like? Here is a totally terrifying, full motion computer simulation of an intersection with SD cars in white and human-controlled cars in yellow. All cars would need some computer assistance to cross the intersection.

So that’s where we are. We may not have those jet packs we were promised, but a self-driving car may be just a few car payments away from our garages.

Click here for a ride in Google’s Self-Driving Car

UPDATE 8/22/12-

In the course of our daily websurfing, we came across this article on interactive cars; cars that communicate with each other to avoid crashes. Not quite self-driving, but an important step. The Department of Transportation and the University of Michigan are testing 2800 vehicles on the roads of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see how this technology works in the real world.