self-driving car

The Optimism-Pessimism Dichotomy of Engineers

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"Boss" the autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challange

“Boss” the autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challange

Over the course of the past 30 years, I’ve come to know and respect many engineers and noticed an interesting dichotomy among many of those that work in the field of transportation. They can be at once among the most optimistic and pessimistic people I’ve known. Engineering is all about applying science and technology to develop creative solutions to the problems we face on a daily basis.

Throughout most of human history, mobility often has been fraught with peril. Most of that time we have had to move on foot and while humans have some unique physical advantages such opposable thumbs and our ability to verbalize, we are sadly lacking in speed, strength and endurance compared to many other species. Despite that, we have used our ingenuity to develop tools and devices that enable us to get around more effectively.

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Do You Want a Self-Driving Car That Can’t Deal With Weather?

This entry was posted in cars technology and tagged autonomous vehicle Google+ salt self-driving car sensors weather on by (updated 3375 days ago)
Mockup of Google's prototype low-speed autonomous car

Mockup of Google’s prototype low-speed autonomous car

Over the last several years, Google has made a lot of noise about its progress in developing self-driving cars. However, throughout that time one thing has remained absolutely consistent in all of their progress reports – the sun is always shining and the roads are clear and dry. Unlike the automakers based here in Michigan, Google exists in a seemingly magical environment that is rarely subject to the vagaries of weather. As I pumped some gas and cleaned the salt crust off my headlights the other day, I began to think about the autonomous vehicle prototypes I’ve seen recently.

Tech companies like Google are often accused of living in a bubble where they aren’t subject to the issues that we mere humans have to deal with on a daily basis. Rarely has this been more true than with autonomous vehicles, which Google thinks will be on the road in the next few years. I say fat chance.

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Audi Puts on Impressive Show With Autonomous RS7

This entry was posted in cars technology the business and tagged audi audi piloted rs7 autonomous driving autonomous RS7 autonomousvehicles self-driving car on by

However, it didn’t really prove anything other than that the basic technology for self-driving cars is now fairly well understood.  That doesn’t bring the full-function self-driving car any closer to regular use on open roads. That probably won’t happen until the end of the 2020s.

This demonstration was done on a closed course that is well mapped with no other vehicles around. The real issue that Audi and every other manufacturer has to deal with is working out all the kinks of dealing with weather, less than ideal road conditions, system robustness and of course programming ethics into the system.

That’s not something this particular group of engineers had to deal with. Not to take anything away from their achievement, but there is still a huge amount of work to do before we let self-driving cars loose.

Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept