Car-robot transits in urban ways without driver

In the last thursday, a Passat automobile took a walk for a parking, made three conversions and followed the laws of transit in a crossing of two streets of double hand - everything without driver. The test was carried through by the University of Stanford, in the United States, and is part of the preparation for the DARPA Urban Challenge, a race of independent cars in an urban center, in accordance with the Technology Review.

The name of the Passat is Junior and the test served to determine if it is apt to compete in the challenge. The motivation for the Urban Challenge is to construct one better car. “Cars are unsafe”, say Sebastian Thrun, leader of the team and professor of Stanford. Accidents kill 42 a thousand in U.S.A. and about 1 million in everybody to each year, beyond being inefficient, causing bottlings and demanding extreme attention. The objective of the team of Stanford is to make an car that dirige alone, becoming the roads local the safest one and returning to the people its time. It has two years, the team of Stanford, with the vehicle Stanley, won the DARPA Grand Challenge, a atônoma race in the desert. The car had sensors GPS and laser, a camera and diverse other equipment to guide in the desert. Junior is based on the same technology, but with many improvements. The Junior has type of perception the same the laser that the Stanley, but with a bigger reach. The new car has a total of eight systems that emit light rays and detect consequences, to determine in the distance of other objects. The car also has a necessary equipment of GPS that works in set with a system that monitorial the revolution of the wheels. This set allows to have a precision of localization of 30 centimeters. In agreement tone Thrun, one of the new features most important is the evolution of artificial intelligence. Junior can deal with traffic questions, an obstacle that was not part of the previous challenge. “In the other race, you he had that he only knows sped up itself or diminuía the speed. Now discreter decisions beyond those exist”, said Thrun. Junior successfully fulfilled to all the tests which was assigned. The first one was to assure that the team could remotely stop the car to a speed of 20 mph (about 32 Km/h). Other tests were of navigation, identification of transit plates, to prevent obstacles and to follow directions sent by the DARPA.