Driverless Vans Make 9,000 Mile Trip to Shanghai
- 14 years ago
After nine thousand miles on the road... a pair of vans arrived in Shanghai Tuesday. But what makes these cars unique is that they don't need anyone at the steering wheel.
Setelah perjalanan sembilan ribu mil, sepasang mobil van ini akhirnya tiba di Shanghai hari Selasa. Uniknya, mobil ini tidak memerlukan siapapun untuk mengendalikan setirnya.
These Piaggio electric vans have made the nine thousand mile trip from Parma, Italy to Shanghai on Tuesday. But what makes the cars special is that they operate with someone at the wheel.
The record-breaking feat was accomplished through on-board computers, cameras and sensors.
The vehicles use sensors to allow them to understand what is going on around them, and then decide to steer, break or accelerate accordingly.
Each vehicle has two cameras mounted on the front to detect lane markings, three inside the windshield to detect the vehicle in front, and three laser scanners on the front that can detect any obstacles, such as pedestrians.
Only movements like parking and pulling over require manual control.
The vehicles have also struggled in heavy traffic, such as in central Moscow. The computer became disorientated by other cars switching lanes… forcing engineers to take control.
[Alberto Broggi, Project Leader]:
"40,000 people die every year on European roads for car accidents, and 93 percent of these accidents are due to human errors. So if we can help the driver, if we can maybe even replace the driver, we might be able to reduce the number of accidents. So this is the main goal that we have."
They will now make the long journey back to Italy.
Setelah perjalanan sembilan ribu mil, sepasang mobil van ini akhirnya tiba di Shanghai hari Selasa. Uniknya, mobil ini tidak memerlukan siapapun untuk mengendalikan setirnya.
These Piaggio electric vans have made the nine thousand mile trip from Parma, Italy to Shanghai on Tuesday. But what makes the cars special is that they operate with someone at the wheel.
The record-breaking feat was accomplished through on-board computers, cameras and sensors.
The vehicles use sensors to allow them to understand what is going on around them, and then decide to steer, break or accelerate accordingly.
Each vehicle has two cameras mounted on the front to detect lane markings, three inside the windshield to detect the vehicle in front, and three laser scanners on the front that can detect any obstacles, such as pedestrians.
Only movements like parking and pulling over require manual control.
The vehicles have also struggled in heavy traffic, such as in central Moscow. The computer became disorientated by other cars switching lanes… forcing engineers to take control.
[Alberto Broggi, Project Leader]:
"40,000 people die every year on European roads for car accidents, and 93 percent of these accidents are due to human errors. So if we can help the driver, if we can maybe even replace the driver, we might be able to reduce the number of accidents. So this is the main goal that we have."
They will now make the long journey back to Italy.