Recently I was dreaming out-loud of the day when I can hop in my car, tell it where I want to go, and then take a nap en route. A dicussion ensued. I argued that although we’ll soon manage to automate our vehicles, it will be many years before car-makers actually remove the steering wheel. I figured that people would cling to the notion that, should things go south, they can always wrest control of the car from the computer. Apparently I was wrong.
Via Engadget, we see that those clever French have deployed an electric, computerized and steering wheel-free golf cart in the Riviera town of Antibes.
Unlike the automated cars currently ferrying passengers through airports and industrial areas in Amsterdam and Hamburg, the CyberCar can function without following embedded road tracers: it follows a preprogrammed route, and a laser sweep pegged to its front end allows it to avoid or stop in front of obstacles. The town of Antibes on the French Riviera and the nearby principality of Monaco are considering buying their own fleets to taxi visitors around their cramped streets.
‘CyberCar’ is tres 1995. That’s a bonus about the automated taxis–no more surly French cabbies.
DarrenBarefoot.com 