The brainiacs at Stanford are planning to conquer the legendary Pikes Peak in an Audi TT. No biggy, but what makes this interesting, is that they don't have a driver to do it. Just a bunch of computers and GPS stuff to help it find its way up the twisting road. The engineers don't just want the car to navigate itself slowly up the mtn pass either, they want it to do it at speed. Their plan is to build an autonomous rally car! Unfortunately, they named it "Shelley", in honor of the first female driver to win on the mtn. I think "Skynet" would have been more appropriate.
Pikes Peak is not just an easy sunday drive down to the park. It is a 12 mile road that climbs up almost 5,000 ft, from 4,700 to 9,400. The road is paved in the beginning and melts into a dirt road w/ little runoff and a loooong way down. There are international races held yearly and everything with an engine and wheels can try it. Everything from motorcycles, to big rigs, to purpose built race cars have raced up the road. The Hill climb is appropriately named the Race to the Clouds. how poetic. Here is a promo vid to give you an idea of what happens out there:
So, will the geeks be able to create a robot version of Sebastien Loeb? I sometimes question if he isnt already a robot, but that's another discussion. A robot rally driver is pretty ambitious stuff. It will have to work gas, brake, and steering seamlessly together. Its way different than stuff like auto-parking functions you find on cars and the distance sensing cruise control. Even w/ all the computer gadgetry, sensors, warp drives, and other technology, do you think a computer aided driver can do stuff like this?
...I don't think so. However this will probably be great R&D that will one day go into regular cars. All this stuff can do great wonders for the "safety nannies" that are in consumer cars now to keep bad drivers safely pointed the correct direction on the roads, like traction control and stability management. Or, it could even be used for fun, like a variable drift setting on a car. Wouldnt it be fun to show up to a track, flip the "Schumacher" switch, and hold on tightly, as the car takes you around the track? It could happen... Automotive roller coasters.
While we mourn the future loss of race car drivers to robots and terminators, let us remember the good times when humans still drove race cars and robots just vacuumed for us:
Rhys Millen time attack Genesis(2wd Class Record)
AMS Tuned Evo IX(2008 4wd Champion)
Heres a link to the orginal article.
