General Motors unveiles a new car, which is driverless! It can steer through traffic, race on highways, follo the speed limit to the last mile, and can even park itself in congested lots...
Driverless Car"This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.
"Now the question is what does society want to do with it?" Burns said. "You're looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can't transfer to a totally different world."
GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.
He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have driverless cars on the road around 2018.
Good news for those who can't drive. Good news also for those who can drive but have so much trouble parking!
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