Engineers at the Berlin Free University have designed an ingenious method to reduce road congestion and traffic by using cars that drive themselves. The team has developed a ‘dial-a-car’ system that allows users to call for a car via their smartphone or iPad, at which point it will automatically drive to wherever they are in order to pick them up.
The car, called MadeInGermany (MIG), will then drive to wherever it is summoned using a combination of satellite navigation, 3D imagery and laser scanners. This mix of systems allows the vehicle to heed traffic lights and road signs and ensures that the car doesn’t crash into any objects… or pedestrians. Once its route is calculated, the ‘smart car’ will even inform you of its ETA and how long you’ll have to wait.
Not only is this a surefire way to get a lift on a Saturday night, but its creators believe that the MIG will be able to reduce traffic by up to 80 percent if it were rolled out as a part of a mass car sharing service. A spokesman from the university said, “Cars that use sensors to recognize other vehicles, pedestrians and bikes will in the future drive more safely than people, who lose concentration and get tired. Most cars spend 90 to 95 percent of the time parked on the side of the road … Our aim is to give back most of the roads back to pedestrians. In the future, people will wonder why at the beginning of the 21st century we still drove our own cars.”
Artificial intelligence expert Professor Paul Rojas said: “Autonomous vehicles could make car sharing a reality by picking up passengers outside their front door, taking them to the workplace, and then continuing on with more passengers.”
Via Yahoo News