National Public Radio featured an interview about the state of driverless car technology on January 17. Bryant Walker Smith, a legal scholar at Stanford estimated that driverless car technology could be available on the market within 10 years. He discussed progress on the legalization of driverless cars in Nevada and Florida and stressed the great potential to save lives. A transcript and soundtrack of the interview is available here.

Google is building a patent portfolio in driverless car technology. In December, the US Patent Office awarded Patent 8078349 for transitioning a car from human-driven to autonomous mode. A key problem which this patent solves is to ensure that the car knows its precise location when switching into autonomous mode. GPS may not be precise enough for the vehicle to understand where it is (it may only be accurate by 10 meters) and to determine the direction it should take. Therefore Google proposes using markings called landing strips – which may be embedded in the road. The human driver stops the car on a landing strip which the car then detects and uses to determine its location. Landing strips may even contain an embedded QR-code. But landing strips need not be marked on the ground. They may consist of recognizable well defined locations which a car can detect by examining its surroundings and for which it can look up the data in a database or online. An example could be a conventional, clearly marked parking spot.

The patent also addresses additional issues of providing instructions to the autonomous car when switching to autonomous mode. This could include instructions to move to a different location where the car is needed or to proceed to a service station for maintenance.

Australian designer Charles Rattray has let imagination run wild with his Autonomo 2030 concept car pictured below. He envisions a fully autonomous electric car with a multi-layer nano-scale surface which includes solar cells. Windows can be switched between opaque and fully-transparent modes. Multiple such cars can automatically travel together in distances of 20 cm thus significantly reducing drag and energy consumption. The autonomo is not much longer but significantly narrower than the Mini and can carry up to two adults seated behind each other. Linked in a flock, two Autonomo vehicles should be able to use a single lane on many streets. Combined with inter-vehicle communication and synchronization this should do much to eliminate traffic jams.For more info see the detailed concept.

Autonomo 2030 Concept Car

 Image source, license

Agriculture is full of opportunities for driverless approaches. German farm equipment vendor Fendt (a subsidiary of AGCO) hast developed a technology ‘Guide-Connect’ to let a tractor operate without driver. The tractor is not fully autonomous; instead it follows another human operated tractor and replicates its actions. A GPS sensor allows it to identify the location where the lead tractor initiates operations such as engaging gears, lowering tools etc. The driverless tractor then performs the same action when it arrives at the corresponding location. The movie below (narration in German) shows the tandem in operation.

Guide-Connect won a Gold Medal for innovation at the 2011 Agritechnica industry fair. The technology is not limited to simple follow-me scenarios. It can also handle obstacles and turns.