Is the first autonomous car already on the road?
Updated 10:47 pm, Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Google has been working to develop an autonomous vehicle for years, but the first one might already be on the road.
The 2013 Lincoln MKZ, and the new Ford Fusion, can steer itself using a lane keeper feature, parallel park, and follow other cars using a high-tech cruise control feature. These features all the car to drive with limited human interaction, Yahoo reported.
The car doesn't quite drive itself yet, but Yahoo notes the car is getting closer to the mythical autonomous car status.
Yahoo writer Ezra Dyer said history might label the MKZ as the first autonomous vehicle because it built the foundation for a more refined driverless car.
"You can see the whole autonomous car isn't happening all at once," he says in a video reviewing the car. "It's just as cars develop that these features become more ubiquitous and they layer upon one another."
Cars have become more advanced over the past decade, adding high-tech cruise control systems, electric steering and other features. Those features are quickly blurring the line between an autonomous car and today's mass-produced vehicle.
Ford's lane keeper shows just how close automakers may be getting. A rearview-mounted camera detects lane markers and steers the car back into the center of the lane. The feature is meant to alert drivers of accidental lane departures. The feature works day or night, according to Ford.
Yahoo found the feature can steer itself in most situations. Dyer, who put it to the test, notes the car has trouble when the lane markers are faded, but it does an adequate job of staying in between the lines.
Other automakers have similar features, but the feature usually works by activating the brakes on one side of the vehicle. In that case, Yahoo notes, the car is dragged back on course rather than steered.
Earlier this week, Lexus and Google did show an autonomous vehicle at the Consumer Electrinics Association show in Las Vegas, but Lexus said the project was aimed more at increasing safety than creating a driverless car, according to The New York Times.
Audi is working toward creating "piloted driving," or a system where the car can drive without human interaction for a limited period of time, according to the Los Angeles Times. The company believes it can have the system ready within the decade.