Driverless Vehicles Make Inroads in Military - Velodyne Lidar

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Someday, Will Driverless
Car Tech Kill Traffic Lights
A University of Missouri-Kansas City professor believes
that one day, software that automates vehicle movement
at intersections could do away with traffic lights.
“The idea is not a driverless car. Driverless cars take away
the fun of driving. The main objective is to improve traffic
flow inside the city and do away with the traffic lights,
because they are expensive to maintain,” Vijay Kumar
told the University News, UM-CK’s independent student
newspaper.
Currently, Kumar is studying the “ambiguity effect”
where drivers make decisions despite a lack of information.
Ambiguous and delayed decisions can result in an
accident. However, a number of newer model cars use
software to enable better driver decision making through
technologies like lane keeping.
Kumar is zeroing in on eliminating traffic lights from
intersections or making them more effective. To do this,
cars will have to communicate with each other and the
traffic lights so they can intelligently direct traffic.
Kumar predicts with limited funding it would take two
years for such a system to be on the market.
UK Drivers Skittish on Driverless Cars
U.K.-based insurance firm Be Wiser Insurance found
in a poll that more than two-thirds of British motorists
are uncomfortable with the notion of sharing the road
with driverless cars.
Sixty-eight percent of poll takers reported being uncomfortable
while 32 percent favored it, citing human
judgment flaws that lead to accidents.
“Reducing the potential for human error could make
for a safer driving experience — especially when it
comes to those little bumps and scrapes which occur
when momentary distraction is to blame. A computer
rarely loses concentration,” says Mark Bower-Dyke,
chairman of Be Wiser Insurance.
Concerns among those that said they were uncomfortable
driving near self-driving vehicles included who
would be responsible in an accident and whether driverless
cars could be trusted more than a standard computer.
“Automated parking is already being hailed as a boon
to both drivers and insurers as it reduces the number
of parking related claims,” Bower-Dyke says. “We hope
that driverless cars will be the logical end of safer driving,
especially for those who don’t like or enjoy driving
at all.”
Many respondents to the poll also keyed in on one gray
area that would exist with driverless car passengers —
the ability to drink alcohol before getting in the car.
“Driverless cars could provide real safety advantages
when there are enough of them on the road,” says
Bower-Dyke. “It’s not all about having a robot chauffeur
to drive you back from the pub.”
Advanced Navigation Releases
Triple-Tech Spatial Fog
Australia’s Advanced Navigation has released Spatial
Fog, a spoof-proof enhanced GPS system that can also
operate in areas where GPS is weak or nonexistent.
Spatial Fog combines a GPS receiver with KVH Industries’
1750 inertial measurement unit, allowing
the system to fall back on inertial navigation if GPS
isn’t available. However, the system also uses receiver
autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) to prevent
spoofing, which could be a problem if someone tries to
electronically hijack a self-driving car.
“RAIM works by analyzing
multiple satellite
signals and developing
a statistical model
of the observed versus
expected signals,” the
company says. “From
this model it is able to
determine if there is a
fault with the signals it
is receiving.”
Combing all three systems
makes the system
good for safety-conscious
autonomous vehicles,
the company says.
Advanced Navigation’s Spatial Fog.
Photo courtesy the company.
MISSION CRITICAL • May 2013 5