| I'm sure you've dreamed it: Getting into a car, kicking | | | | Heathrow Airport in London. It uses already available |
| your shoes off and leaning back with a good movie | | | | technology, and is therefore thought a more |
| and a cold beer while your self-driven car takes you | | | | economical alternative than many other designs. It runs |
| safely to your destination, without your having to worry | | | | on rubber tires and is guided by a path made up of |
| about directions or pedestrians. Well, the technology | | | | simple concrete dividers. |
| we need to make that car exists. | | | | Stop for a second to consider some of the positive |
| At Stanford University in California, researchers have | | | | implications of a car that drives itself: |
| developed what many believe is the precursor to | | | | Traffic safety. Since the computers in these driverless |
| driverless personal vehicles. On the cutting edge of | | | | cars are at all times aware of their own and each |
| driverless car technology we find Junior, the smart car | | | | others' position, traffic accidents will be virtually |
| brainchild of the Stanford Articifial Intelligence Lab | | | | eradicated, saving around 40,000 lives annually in the |
| (SAIL). Junior is a 2006 Volkswagen Passat, neatly | | | | US and roughly a million lives worldwide. |
| fitted with a spinning range-determining laser on top | | | | Extra leisure time. Along the way you can do what |
| that provides a 360 view of the car's surroundings | | | | you please: watch movies, read books, play, eat, drink, |
| with 10 images per second. It also has lasers on the | | | | sleep and whatever else your heart desires - there is |
| bumpers and six video cameras mounted on its body, | | | | room for two. |
| and uses sophisticated GPS technology to learn about | | | | Increased productivity. You can work, check your |
| its own position. | | | | e-mail and make phone/video calls while you would |
| It can drive in high traffic, change lanes and stop to | | | | otherwise be driving. And, since you didn't have to |
| wait its turn at the intersection, all on its own. Nobody | | | | drive to work, you'll be more rested, productive and |
| controls its sensation, motion or even decisions - it's a | | | | less stressed once you get there. The potential for |
| fully automated driverless car. In other words, it's not | | | | improvement in productivity is self-evident. |
| like the BMW from Tomorrow Never Dies, it's more | | | | So when are these intelligent robot cars coming? To |
| like Knightrider, a car that makes its own decision on | | | | some extent, they already exist. Driver-assistance |
| where to go, based on what it perceives to be the | | | | mechanisms, such as anti-lock breaks, traction control |
| quickest way to get to the specified destination. | | | | and power-steering, are already standard in most new |
| In Cardiff, Wales, researchers have developed a | | | | cars. However, fully automated cars are projected by |
| personal rapid transit system, the ULTra. It is still in | | | | GM to be in commercial circulation by 2018. |
| testing stages, but a pilot project is taking place at | | | | I've already started to save up for mine. |