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Automated
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Are you intrigued by the possibility of personal automobiles speeding along on automated highways? This concept may be possible in the not too distant future. This was first visualized by the General Motor's exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair where speeds of 100 mph were predicted with distances between vehicles regulated by radio control. Ford">
Automated
Are you intrigued by the possibility of
personal automobiles speeding along on automated highways? This concept may be
possible in the not too distant future. This was first visualized by the
General Motor's exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair where speeds of 100
mph were predicted with distances between vehicles regulated by radio
control. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler
treated us a glimpse of the future again at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Ford's Magic Skyway ride with Walt Disney predicting a future of jet-powered
vehicles over controlled highways in the sky. Video camera's to replace real view
mirrors have been available on motor homes for some time and will be options on
some 2008 vehicles this year. If you look at the success of the contestants in
the DARPA Urban Challenge you will be delighted with the prospects of your
traveling future. "The DARPA Urban
Challenge was held on November 3, 2007, at the former George AFB in Victorville,
Calif. Building on the success of the
2004 and
2005 Grand Challenges, this event required
teams to build an autonomous vehicle capable of driving in traffic, performing
complex maneuvers such as merging, passing, parking and negotiating
intersections. This event was truly groundbreaking as the first time autonomous
vehicles have interacted with both manned and unmanned vehicle traffic in an
urban environment."
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge . www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34669/113 Fast forward to 1964 and, once again, visitors to the New York World's Fair
were treated to a glimpse of the future as envisioned by the likes of Ford,
General Motors and Chrysler. By then it certainly would have been forgivable
that GM's earlier predictions for “the motorist of 1960” had not yet come to
pass. After all, American industry had been distracted by far more important
things, like World War II and the Korean War. This time around, the future of transportation was even more spectacular. I
can remember riding in the front seat of a new Galaxie on Ford's Magic Skyway
ride, listening to the voice of Walt Disney promise a future where everyone
would “drive jet-powered vehicles over weather-controlled highways in the sky
like the spiraling tubes around you” before heading over to Chrysler's autofare
to gawk at its turbine-powered car. It would be another thirty-odd years—1997 to be exact—before my next
firsthand encounter with futuristic vehicle travel. This time I was given the
opportunity to witness Honda's work with the National Automated Highway System
Consortium at Honda's California desert proving grounds during a media preview.
As we reported in the August 1997 Newsbreak department, Honda introduced
attendees to concepts like a blind spot warning system, adaptive cruise control
and a “drowsy driver detector.” The highlight of that experience was “driving”
through an obstacle course in a driverless car, made possible using an
assortment of in-vehicle devices that literally communicated with the road. If you think nothing much has happened in this arena in the past decade, our
coverage of the DARPA Urban Challenge—a competition to build autonomous robotic
vehicles capable of completing an extensive drive over a test course—which
begins on page 55 of this issue, will change your mind for sure. MOTOR
contributor Sam Bell is uniquely qualified to report on the event, since he
participated in it. As you'll read, the stated purpose of the competition is to produce
technologies for application in future military vehicles, but the potential
consumer applications are obvious. Bell says that the progress made in this
competition during the past three years has been nothing short of astonishing.
In our lifetime, it's doubtful we'll see highways, and the vehicles on them,
transform into a transportation system devoid of human control. It's a
certainty, however, that we will see more and more elements of this futuristic
vision become reality. Navigation systems are already commonplace. Adaptive
cruise control is finding its way into more and more vehicles, Lexus already
offers a safety system that monitors a driver's facial features to detect when
he takes his eyes off the road, video cameras are predicted to begin replacing
side-view mirrors in the next few years, there's more and more talk about
vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and the list goes on. While the changes are evolutionary, there are definite signs that the rate of
change is picking up. That fact makes it possible for those in our industry
willing to invest the time and effort to keep pace with not-so-far-fetched
technologies to have a secure future. |