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Long road to driverless motoring
While scientists in Germany claimed to have heralded a new era of driverless cars, chances are it will be quite some time before driving gloves around the world are hung up for good.
Unveiled at Berlin’s Free University (FU), the new driverless car named the institution as the ‘Made in Germany’ (MIG), to the untrained eye, may look like a Volkswagen Passat with a camera on its roof. However, MIG’s driving system uses cameras, laser scanners, heat sensors and satellite navigation in order to sense other vehicles, obstacles and changing conditions in order to pilot the car as a human would, yet with alleged greater efficiency.
This latest development comes on the back of others dabbling in the self-driving car field. Google has recently completed testing driverless cars in the San Francisco Bay area, covering 140,000 miles in the process and scientists in Germany’s Braunschweig exhibited a car called “Leonie”, which made it through a series of real traffic trials.
Yet, the MIG has prompted professors at the FU to set a definitive timeline as to when driverless vehicles will be commonplace. Professor Raul Rojas, a senior contributor to the project, stated that the technology will be on motorways in 10-20 years. He also said: “In the future it will be forbidden for safety reasons for people to drive cars... The cars today are the horses of tomorrow”.
However, regional branches of major car manufacturers beg to differ. “The equipment they develop in these tests can be modified for increased and more efficient safety equipment in the vehicle,” Mona El Mahdi, public relations manager for Volkswagen Middle East, told the Khaleej Times. “Systems can be developed, but they are scaled down and linked to the driver, who remains in the car.”
The crux of the argument appears to be that car makers do not actually want to take motorists out of the equation. A sentiment shared by Audi Middle East. Karin Haferkorn, public relations manager for Audi ME told the Khaleej Times: “Our goal is not to replace the driver, but to support him/her even more with new technologies. With innovative driver assistance systems, such as the night vision assist, lane assist and the Braking Guard, we increase safety and comfort for the driver. With the parking system and ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) Stop&Go Audi already offers semi-autonomous driving.”
Crucially the car makers made it very clear that while the research gleaned from driverless trials helps them tackle the big problems of reducing emissions and accident rates, it does not pave the way for a world where KITT from 80s TV show Knightrider becomes commonplace.
Innovations such as cars electronically “talking” to traffic lights to signal their presence so the lights can change accordingly to lessen waiting times and the vehicle detecting other cars in blind spots (already a feature on most new models) will continue to become increasingly popular, but will not lead to driver being made redundant anytime in the foreseeable future.
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