Nissan Shows Off Collision-Avoidance Robots
Nissan is developing robots that can avoid collision and traffic congestion.
Imagine one of those drunken nights when you're swerving all over the road, and suddenly a walking mailbox or tree magically jumps into your path? Now imagine an automobile that goes into autopilot in an instant and swerves the car out of away before smacking into that walking tree. That seems to be the idea--although not quite as dramatic--behind Nissan's latest collision-avoidance technology.
Currently the company is testing the technology on a small troop of Eporo robots, tweaking their ability to quickly navigate around objects. Like a school of fish, the six robots follow each other, coordinate their speeds, and apparently can shift lanes to avoid obstacles. Computerworld describes a recent demonstration at CEATEC, showing how the robots could shift from three lanes, to two lanes, and then down to one.
"In EPORO, we recreated the behavior of a school of fish making full use of cutting-edge electronic technologies," said Toshiyuki Andou, Manager of Nissan's Mobility Laboratory and principal engineer of the robot car project. "By sharing the surrounding information received within the group via communication, the group of EPOROs can travel safely, changing its shape as needed."
Although the robots are less than one meter high, Nissan plans to eventually incorporate the technology into cars to avoid road congestion and reduce the number of traffic accidents. Unfortunately, this idea won't work unless ALL vehicles have the collision-avoidance technology, including those not manufactured by Nissan. Hopefully future cars won't look like those Slime things from Dragon Quest games.
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One word comes to mind. "Classic's". What happens when you have a classic car. You wouldn't want to change anything or you depreciate the value.
What's the point of coordinating all the cars on the road and having them auto-pilot themselves? You shouldn't be driving at all if you need the car to avoid objects for you. This will only make bad drivers worse since they'll depend on the car. If the ultimate goal is to remove the need for driving, then I may as well use public transportation.
I wonder what they'd do if instead of hitting a tree it swerved into a small child. I can definitely see a lawsuit coming if something like that happens.
just wait until they revolt
One word comes to mind. "Classic's". What happens when you have a classic car. You wouldn't want to change anything or you depreciate the value.
You wouldn't be depreciating the car if it's the law to have one of these installed...which is what it will take to have one installed in every vehicle. A law.
As I understand it, and do correct me if I'm wrong, but that implies it avoids anything that has the same device. how does that work with other random obstructions?
I can't wait for the advent of a car that drives itself. I love driving in a nice car on the open road, but let's face it, sitting in traffic on your way to work is a chore, not to mention having to get a taxi back home from nights out on the town. May we all live to see the day!
If human drivers were supplanted by computer control, they could go through intersections at 150mph and miss other cars by only an inch. Surely scary if looking out the window, but thats how packet switched networks operate today. Vehicles could also be designed with interior comfort, entertainment, business, and safety in mind.
I trust a triple checked and verified computer system more than a texting teenager or a 75 year old man whose one speedbump away from a stroke or heart attack. We lose over 65k people per year in car wrecks, far mor than the 5k we've lost in nine years of war. People might not like dying because of a bug or glitch, but by the numbers, I think a properly designed and controlled system would, in total, result in less loss of life.
That being said I'd still want the option of some offroad rally action or a stunt course with some slick road action. I don't wanna take the passion out of driving, I just wanna increase the safety of the daily commute and make it less boring.
What I want to know is what it would decide to do, if it is in a situation where it should decide if it would hit a person or another car.
If human drivers were supplanted by computer control, they could go through intersections at 150mph and miss other cars by only an inch. Surely scary if looking out the window, but thats how packet switched networks operate today. Vehicles could also be designed with interior comfort, entertainment, business, and safety in mind.
What happens when you get a packet collision in real life?
What happens when you get a packet collision in real life?
You stop using hubs and get a switch?
"Unfortunately, this idea won't work unless ALL vehicles have the collision-avoidance technology, including those not manufactured by Nissan"
That's never going to happen. Good idea but it won't happen. Next.
"Unfortunately, this idea won't work unless ALL vehicles have the collision-avoidance technology, including those not manufactured by Nissan"That's never going to happen. Good idea but it won't happen. Next.
it will eventually happen if nothing else than for marketing purposes, but each company will design their own system that's "better than the rest", and there will be no standards to allow them to interact with each other. so, either it will be a big fail or they'll redesign them to be "platform" independent to get around the interactive issue without surrendering proprietary designs.
As I understand it, and do correct me if I'm wrong, but that implies it avoids anything that has the same device. how does that work with other random obstructions?
What I want to know is what it would decide to do, if it is in a situation where it should decide if it would hit a person or another car.
This is why it was said in the article it would only work if every car had it. If every car had the collision avoidance technology, then when one car encountered an obstruction, the car would avoid the obstruction and the other cars around it would adjust to avoid the first car. If only a few cars have the technology you can obviously see why it wouldn't work very well.
yeah, install the technology on them bump cars and you'll spoil all the fun! these robots really lack self-esteem. they're too damn scared to interact with their own peers.
just a thought. even if Nissan perfects the technology, in the split seconds before a possible collision, who takes control of the steering or brakes? the sober human or the electronics? if the human decides to steer right and the computer to the left, who wins?