The Self-Driving Motor Vehicle
Have you ever been frustrated at:
- Stop and start motorway traffic?
- Bad drivers cutting you up?
- Articulated lorries pulling out in front of you?
- Speed cameras?
- A 2 hour delay because of an accident or heavy traffic?
Well imagine a world where these things don’t happen. This is what my prototype for a self-driving motor vehicle will achieve. I’ve sat in motorway queues and thought “Why? We have the technology to change this!”
My prototype demonstrates how a motor vehicle can be safely controlled automatically by computer. I envisage that if every vehicle had a computer control system it would be possible to travel at higher speeds, increasing the road network capacity (by driving closer together) and improve emergency services e.g. by moving vehicles automatically out of the way of an ambulance or freeing up paramedics from driving to treat the patient.
This site is to share my vision and developments in the creation of a autonomous motor vehicle. Most of the basic components to automatically drive a motor car already exist:
- GPS to position vehicle and improvid identifiction of junctions
- Road Network Information (used in GPS navigation) from Ordinance Survey (in the UK)
- Cruise Control
- Radar to detect and respond to road objects (currently available on Mercedes and Fords)
- An automatic gear box
The missing components are:
- A vision system to interpret the environment
- Integration of all of the components into a safe, realtime system
This technology represents a major shift in road travel, no more traffic jams, fewer accidents, more time.
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(c) Ian White 2006
