Technology for automating the bore of highway driving may actually encourage drivers to eat in the car, apply makeup, shave, read a book, surf the ‘net, paint, or yoga-cize.
This sounds like a significant technical challenge. If one desires to take advantage of aerodynamic gains, as the article suggests, the vehicles will need to be driving with very little space between (think NASCAR). Safely executing automated bumper-hugging driving will require nearly instantaneous ability for the auto to perform an emergency breaking procedure, in the case of the vehicle directly in front doing the same.
Better hope you’re not about to take a sip of hot coffee when your car decides to do that.
Excerpt:
Researchers in the European Union are using telematics to create “road trains” that join the benefits of carpooling with the freedom of driving alone.
The latest concept, part of the EU’s Safe Road Trains for the Environment initiative, groups cars with similar destinations into road trains over long stretches of highway. The lead vehicle will be driven by an experienced motorist — it may even be a bus that regularly travels the route — while the functions of each following vehicle will be automatically controlled and tethered to the actions of the lead car so that individual drivers can hammer out e-mails or eat breakfast. Despite the project’s name, cars can exit at any time.
While the project, which goes by the acronym SARTRE, sounds futuristic, all it requires are navigation systems that communicate with the lead vehicle and control acceleration and steering. The project’s lead agencies estimate that vehicles will begin testing in 2011 and say a full-scale rollout is likely within a decade.
With Road Trains, Highways Become Public Transportation | Autopia | Wired.com.
