On the road to a driverless future

    Updated: 2013-06-09 05:48

    (The New York Times)

      Print Mail Large Medium  Small

     On the road to a driverless future

    Software by Mobileye detects information while on the road, such as the location of other vehicles and signs. An Audi drives with some human input. Photographs by Mobileye

    JERUSALEM - On a freeway from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, I sat in the driver's seat of an Audi A7 in April while software connected to a video camera on the windshield drove the car at speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour: making a singular statement about the rapid progress in the development of self-driving cars.

    While the widely publicized Google car is festooned with cameras, radar and the laser range finders called lidars, this one is distinctive because of the simplicity and the relatively low cost of its system - just a few hundred dollars' worth of materials. "The idea is to get the best out of camera-only autonomous driving," said Gaby Hayon of Mobileye Vision Technologies, the Israeli company that created the system in the Audi.

    The Mobileye car does not offer the autonomy achieved by Google's engineers. The Google car will merge onto freeways, drive safely through intersections, make left and right turns, and pass slower vehicles.

    By contrast, the Mobileye vehicle is capable only of driving in a single lane at freeway speeds, as well as identifying traffic lights and automatically slowing, stopping and then returning to highway speeds.

    But by blending advanced computer vision techniques with low-cost video cameras, the company is demonstrating how quickly autonomous driving can be commercialized. "You cannot have a car with $70,000 of equipment," said Amnon Shashua, a founder of Mobileye, referring to Google's lidar system, "and imagine that it will go into mass production."

    Mobileye has recently begun offering the third generation of its technology, which companies like Volvo have promoted for its ability to detect pedestrians and cyclists. Nissan also recently gave a hint of things to come with a demonstration of a car that could automatically swerve to avoid a pedestrian. The system was based on Mobileye technology.

    On the road to a driverless future

    As soon as this summer, the first limited systems offering a feature known as "traffic jam assist" will begin arriving from more than five major automobile makers. Those cars will drive safely in stop-and-go traffic, but will require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel.

    But more advanced systems will be introduced as early as 2016, according to Mobileye, and it was that advanced capability I experienced.

    In California in 2010, I was the first reporter to drive in the Google car, a Toyota Prius fitted with sensors that created a remarkably detailed map of the world around the car.

    It was a tour de force. The car was taken out of automatic pilot just twice - while passing a cyclist and then again to back into a parking space.

    In the Google car, I had felt detached from the machine intelligence that guided it. As the car piloted itself through its first curve, there had been an eerie more-human-than-human sense.

    But in the Mobileye car I was acutely aware of the autopilot's limitations. The car had a tendency to weave a bit when it started to pull away from an intersection - behavior that did not inspire confidence. Once, while passing a parked car, the Audi pulled in the direction of the other vehicle. Not wanting to learn the car's intentions, I nudged it back to the center of the lane.

    On the road to a driverless future

    The Mobileye engineers said the single camera would be supplemented with an array of five more: a wide-range camera and additional side-mounted and rear-facing cameras. The goal, they said, was to build a system with the same capability as the Google car's.

    After 20 minutes of freeway driving, I put the Audi back on autopilot and headed toward Jerusalem. The demonstration was not as dramatic as my Google ride, but it gave me a clearer understanding of what the automobile industry has in its sights.

    The New York Times

    (China Daily 06/09/2013 page11)

    91中文在线视频| 亚洲AV无码久久精品成人| 亚洲AV日韩AV高潮无码专区| 一级电影在线播放无码| 亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码APP | 最近中文字幕高清免费中文字幕mv| 无码国产精品一区二区免费模式| 新版天堂资源中文8在线| 久久精品无码一区二区三区日韩 | 人妻少妇无码精品视频区| 亚洲中文字幕在线第六区| 人妻无码一区二区三区免费| 精品国产V无码大片在线看| 亚洲国产精品无码中文字 | 无码av不卡一区二区三区| 午夜人性色福利无码视频在线观看 | 人妻中文无码久热丝袜| 中文字幕在线观看免费视频| 影院无码人妻精品一区二区| 国产成人无码av片在线观看不卡| 亚洲熟妇无码AV在线播放| 天堂在线观看中文字幕| 国产区精品一区二区不卡中文| 免费A级毛片无码鲁大师| 2024你懂的网站无码内射| 国产真人无码作爱视频免费| 无码视频在线观看| 亚洲日产无码中文字幕| 岛国无码av不卡一区二区| 人妻少妇AV无码一区二区| 免费无码H肉动漫在线观看麻豆| 中文字幕精品久久久久人妻| 最近2019年免费中文字幕高清 | 精品中文高清欧美| 中文在线资源天堂WWW| 夜夜精品无码一区二区三区| 亚洲男人第一无码aⅴ网站| 亚洲av无码一区二区三区人妖| 免费无码国产V片在线观看| 国模吧无码一区二区三区| 无码国产亚洲日韩国精品视频一区二区三区|