Is This The Beginning Of An Automotive Revolution? An 8,000 Mile DRIVER-LESS Road Trip

So, by this time if you guys and gals have been keeping in the loop regarding automotive advancement we know that cars can pilot themselves. And why not?

Think about all of the technology packed into cars these days. It makes perfect sense that an auto can drive itself if need be: it has satnav to pinpoint where it is and direct it to its next destination, active cruise control to maintain distance between vehicles being followed, blind spot information systems that know if cars are approaching from your backside and plenty of cameras and sensors to inform you of just about anything else you can imagine.

But has it been on an 8,000-mile road trip? I think not!

Well, there is a first time for everything. And that time is now.

Are we looking at the beginnings of the future of the "auto-pilot" car?

Pft. Who cares about floating sidewalks when we've got this kind of technology?

**Click "Read Article" to read about the full details of the three-month long "ghost ship" journey


PARMA, Italy — It's a modern-day version of Marco Polo's journey halfway around the world — but is anyone at the controls?

A team of Italian engineers on Tuesday launched what has been billed as the longest-ever test drive of driverless vehicles: an 8,000-mile, three-month road trip from Italy to China, not in search of silk, but to test the limits of future automotive technology.

Two bright orange vehicles, equipped with laser scanners and cameras that work in concert to detect and help avoid obstacles, are to brave the traffic of Moscow, the summer heat of Siberia and the bitter cold of the Gobi desert before the planned arrival in Shanghai at the end of October...

[Source: MSNBC]









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WorldofLuxury - 7/21/2010 1:41:46 AM

+1 Boost

Honestly, during more than 80% of my time driving, I have wished to purchase the newest vehicles with those driving assist technologies. KITT... just made me dream a bit too far.

Anyways, my friend's start/stop adaptive cruise control is "to die for." Sometimes, its driving behavior can be a bit rude and sometimes a bit too nice. Still, it gets boring, but boredom is better than the pain of rush hour.

Agent00R - 7/21/2010 8:33:03 AM

+1 Boost

In traffic jams there is nothing more desireable than a Active Cruise Control system that will start/stop and do all the work for you.

Believe you me, I have done it before in a 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL550 in a two-hour jam in New York and an E63 AMG stuck on I-95 due to a fatal accident.

pcar4evr - 7/21/2010 8:39:21 AM

+1 Boost

I like this. Now I won't have to install that damn breathalyzer interlock system. I'll install this gadget so I can be driven and still be drunk. What's it cost?

Wait a minute, developed by Italians? Fiat engineers? Forget it.

thstone - 7/21/2010 12:54:02 PM

+1 Boost

Might as well take a bus.

truckman - 7/21/2010 3:21:08 PM

+1 Boost

The cops can now give the car the ticket, they will have to drive many miles to pay that off.