Fully autonomous cars may still be the stuff of science fiction. Remote driving technology, however, may be much closer than we think.
Scientists at the Technische Universität München (TUM) believe that full-size remote control cars could be hitting the roads within the next five to ten years. So if your next rental car turns up to your door driverless, the chances are that the actual driver is sitting in the car rental headquarters.
Researchers at TUM’s Institute of Automotive Technology have demonstrated that cars can be driven remotely and safely on public roads. As part of their project, the engineers equipped the Visio.M electric car with six video cameras and enabled all functions to be activated via a central control panel. The video images are fed into a computer before being encoded and sent to the driver at the remote operator station via LTE.
The station resembles a driving simulator, equipped with a steering wheel, instrumentation panel and pedals. The operator views the road on three huge monitors that display images from up to five cameras facing to the front and to the sides. The cameras are positioned in the middle of the windscreen behind the rear view mirror. Another camera relays images from behind the car.
The force feedback steering wheel uses actuators to simulate driving forces and thus delivers an extremely realistic driving experience. The brakes are equally realistic – the pedal in the operator station reacts in the exact same way as the pedal in a car. In addition to the 360-degree view of the car’s environment, the operator can also hear exactly what is going on inside the car thanks to Dolby 5.1 technology.
In many cities today, the LTE network has sufficient reach to deliver the bandwidth required to transmit video images, sound and control data from a car. In addition, mobile networks are continuing to expand. These increases in capacity are flanked by the emergence of the next video coding standard, H.265, which can compress images even more efficiently to just fifty percent of the sizes currently possible today. Even without these developments, the data could still be transmitted today via the much slower UMTS network as the delay here is well under half a second.
In the event of a bandwidth bottleneck or a sudden connection failure, the vehicle automatically brakes until it reaches a standstill. Despite the technical feasibility, however, there are still a number of legal hurdles to be overcome before this technology can be deployed on regular roads.
The Latest Bing News on:
Autonomous cars
- Aurora picks up Schneider as latest autonomous freight hauling partneron August 2, 2022 at 6:39 am
Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora announced it picked up a commercial pilot partnership with national trucking firm Schneider National to further test out and validate ...
- Shenzhen allows fully autonomous vehicles on certain roadson August 2, 2022 at 5:34 am
The southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen Monday started allowing fully autonomous vehicles to run on certain roads as a local regulation on smart and internet-connected vehicles went into effect.
- Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba teams up with Tesla rival Xpeng on tech for driverless carson August 2, 2022 at 5:09 am
For Xpeng, the move marks its ambitions to pull ahead in China's fiercely competitive electric vehicle market and attempt to challenge giants Tesla and BYD.
- CARIAD SE Selects Innoviz as Direct LiDAR Supplier for the Segment of Automated Vehicles Within the Volkswagen Brandson August 2, 2022 at 4:00 am
Innoviz Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INVZ) (the "Company" or "Innoviz") announced today that its recent design win is with CARIAD SE.
- Innoviz lidar will be on all VW vehicles with automated driving capabilitieson August 2, 2022 at 4:00 am
Israeli lidar startup Innoviz will supply its lidar sensors and perception software to all vehicles with automated driving capabilities within Volkswagen group brands, the company said Tuesday.
- Robotaxi accelerates China's driverless car dreamson August 1, 2022 at 1:41 am
STORY: This robo-taxi is navigating jaywalkers and traffic in the Chinese city of Shenzen, while its safety driver looks on from the passenger seat.New rules mean a hundred self-driving vehicles can ...
- Shenzhen accelerates China's driverless car dreamson August 1, 2022 at 1:16 am
On a busy downtown street three delivery bikes suddenly dart over the pedestrian crossing ahead of the car. On the car's dashboard they look like small 3D blue blocks from a 1990s video game.
- Driverless cars may need gender settings as women are better at using them than menon July 30, 2022 at 6:20 am
The battle of the sexes still rages over whether men or women make better drivers.But when it comes to driverless cars, a new study has found that women are better at taking back control of the ...
- New Study: Cyngn’s Autonomous Industrial Vehicles Increased Productivity by 33%on July 28, 2022 at 5:06 am
Cyngn (or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CYN), a developer of innovative autonomous driving software solutions for industrial and commercial applications, today released a new case study quantifying the ...
- How Driverless Delivery Vehicles Really Workon July 27, 2022 at 7:22 am
A fleet of cars has been delivering groceries, pizzas, and more in Houston — all without drivers. Here's how the driverless delivery vehicles work.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Autonomous cars
The Latest Bing News on:
Self driving vehicles
- Self-driving firms ramp up investment, accelerating innovationson August 2, 2022 at 4:53 am
Several Chinese self-driving companies have announced new investments and the landing of self-driving taxi services after the nation's first regulation on smart vehicles came into effect in Shenzhen, ...
- Innoviz Surges as Volkswagen Selects Its Self-Driving Lidar Technologyon August 2, 2022 at 4:18 am
Volkswagen has selected Innoviz to supply lidar technology as the auto maker continues its development of self-driving cars. Innoviz (ticker: INVZ) announced Tuesday that Volkswagen (VOW3.Germany) ...
- Should self-driving cars come with black box recorders?on August 1, 2022 at 8:07 pm
As technology advances, an international team of experts suggests that autonomous vehicles and robots should come equipped with a black box.
- Feds probe crash of TuSimple self-driving truck in Tucsonon August 1, 2022 at 4:40 pm
TuSimple, which has tested self-driving trucks from its Tucson terminal since 2015, says a non-injury crash in April was caused by human error.
- Hyundai Motor eyes acquisition of Korean lidar-free self-driving startup 42doton August 1, 2022 at 10:08 am
A spokesperson of 42dot told TechCrunch that the startup is in talks with Hyundai Motor, but cautioned that terms, including stake size and deal valuation, hadn’t materialized yet. Hyundai Motor did ...
- We tested the self-driving Mercedes tech so advanced, it’s not allowed in the U.S.on July 30, 2022 at 10:00 am
Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot reaches a new level of sophistication for driver-assist systems. We hit the track to see what it can do.
- Self-driving start-up Pony.ai plans to mass produce robotrucks in Chinaon July 27, 2022 at 8:32 pm
Self-driving tech start-up Pony.ai announced plans to mass produce autonomous driving trucks in China with equipment manufacturing giant Sany Heavy Industry.
- This Is Why Self-Driving Cars Are A Step In The Wrong Directionon July 27, 2022 at 5:30 pm
Many gearheads believe autonomous vehicles are the future, but we have a few reasons why you should be wary of self-driving cars.
- How Driverless Delivery Vehicles Really Workon July 27, 2022 at 7:22 am
A fleet of cars has been delivering groceries, pizzas, and more in Houston — all without drivers. Here's how the driverless delivery vehicles work.
- We Tried Mercedes' Self-Driving Electric Car That You Can Buy Todayon July 22, 2022 at 10:04 am
Like other autonomous vehicle demos we've tested before, Mercedes' DRIVE PILOT starts out disconcerting and then rapidly becomes something you take for granted.
