Australia - A pilot transit bus - really a cute shuttle vehicle - is being tested in Perth. Hopes are to expand the 2.5-km/1.6-mile route if all goes well. This is not a relatively complex autonomous vehicle. It will go slowly and travel on a route with plenty of pedestrians to watch out and stop for. (I do not believe in avoiding finishing sentences with prepositions.) This project required a unique permit from the state government. Russia - Maybe it's the Putin-uber macho mystique, but Russia is (like the US Army) working on a driverless tank, or, as it is officially referred to, an armored vehicle. The tank can fit 10 soldiers and their gear, so it is also the first tiny driverless barracks. This video is like a combination of a bad car commercial and a bad the-vehicle-as-villain scary movie.
It is truly a weird thing that I am reading any article from Popular Mechanics, but the worlds of mechanics, technology, and transportation are merging when it comes to autonomous vehicles. And on the farm It's not only soldiers whose jobs will be redefined or lost. We're doing away with farm hands as well, at least the ones holding onto to steering wheels. Driverless tractors are being perfected and soon to be sold to farmers everywhere. You will be able to use your i-pad or other tablet to start and monitor the tractor as it plants and does other stuff. (I'm from Brooklyn. Assume I know nothing about agricultural operations.) Warning: The video on the linked webpage is creepy.
Chevrolet debuted its Chevrolet-FNR, an electric, autonomous "concept car" at the Shangai GM Gala Night event earlier today. Iowa wants to start certifying roads for driverless cars. The University of Iowa will be hosting a semi-automated Volvo prototype and it wishes to copy the Swedes, who have the only road in the world certified for driverless vehicles. Sweden will need that road soon as Volvo plans to have 100 driverless cars on its roads in 2017. Robotic lawnmowers are on the way to the U.S. Astronomers are unhappy, however, with their demand for more space on the FCC-regulated wireless spectrum. These machines are already happily mowing lawns in Europe, sort of like the vacuum and pool bots we have here.
Driverless tractors and produce pickers are happening. One tech-obsessed farmer discusses his investment in human-less farm equipment. Even the abysmally low wages paid to migrant farmworkers amount to a big expense for agribusinesses large and small. This article is mostly about technology applied to strawberry picking that can track the fruit's development, mimic how a human harvests the fruit, and package it on the spot. That might make a vacation at an organic farm much less charming. Trucking without truckers The trucking industry has the same issue as the farms in terms of the high cost of drivers. Mercedes-Benz already has a driverless truck prototype. This will take driverless commercial vehicles from the warehouse to the roads. The article also discusses small machines that will autonomously traverse sidewalks to deliver packages to our doors without a human involved at all. So many snarky comments possible with that news. I hope those little machines are not equipped with cameras and that they are designed for easy navigation with pedestrians. Michigan wants to lead The University of Michigan is taking the advent of driverless vehicles, and robotics generally, very seriously, with a center for autonomous technology to be located right by the autonomous vehicle testing grounds.
