The future of autonomous cars … and planes
January 27, 2012 by Amara D. Angelica
(Credit: BMW)
If you’re driving on the Autobahn right now, I advise you keep an eye out for this guy, who is apparently praying his driverless BMW doesn’t crash into something (note: this is a highway without speed limits — not reassuring).
(Videos here.)
Hey, BMW: why not toss in a robot driver to carry groceries and fight off the crowds at Walmart on Black Friday?
So what’s next? Autonomous planes?
The X-47B drone (credit: Chad Slattery/Northrop Grumman)
Why as a matter of fact, yes. The Navy is testing one right now near Chesapeake Bay, the Navy’s X-47B drone, says the L.A. Times. Only this one is driven by a computer instead of a praying pilot, and will be smart enough to land itself on aircraft carriers.
Unlike current remote-controlled drones, these autonomous drones will react at high speed and carry a lot more fire power. See the awesome “United States Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047” report for more.
Ultimate robotic war plane: the MQ-lc (post-2020) (credit: USAF)
Also coming: robotic armed submarines and automated tanks, perfect for L.A. freeway driving.
Comments (9)
by melajara
This is an interesting industrial trend.
For every product x, normally operated by a human being, develop a series of products x1, x2, xi, … xn where each x i+1 is embedding more intelligence than xi to converge towards a seemingly truly autonomous product xn (immersed in the internet of things) .
Now, if only ALL those separate efforts would be switched for the development of an humanoid robot, we wouldn’t need ANY of those “autonomous” products but just pair a traditional product with a universal robot (instead of the current human being).
Unfortunately the current trend is the easy albeit inelegant way to “solve” the problem of automation. Besides, it is an endless path towards so called economical “growth” (by planned obsolescence of each xi), and this is the real motive for the trend, IMHO.
by Lord Penguin
It’ll be a long time before computers will be even able to handle an artificial general intelligence program, and even longer before such a program will be completed. Generally, companies work on things that will be useful to them in the next few years (although a few companies, like Google, spend a small portion of their money on long-term research).
It’s not like all of those products with one-task AI will be useless later. They can be combined into better programs to do more things, and people can learn from them when creating more powerful AI.
Once some competent AGI is invented, putting it into every product would have several problems. Whoever created the program wouldn’t want to give it out cheaply, and it might be a while before enough people create AGI to make it affordable, and even then the computer to handle it would be expensive.
So AGI would mostly be useful to control smaller programs, regulating, for example, all the robots, computers, appliances, etc within a building so they run smoothly with each other and people.
by John Doe
Great post and very true.
by Gianluca
Looking at how careless many drivers are, I think autonomous driving is more than welcomed. Death rates on the streets will never lower otherwise, there’s no chance since our brains aren’t going to change but in a few thousand years.
by steve
I’m not so sure that the average consumer would accept an autonomous car. Don’t they buy the dumb machines for the illusion of speed, power, & freedom? Isn’t that what car culture is all about?
by Plasticbrain
LOL!
by Carl
That drone looks familiar… http://bit.ly/xB1BJT
by Cybernettr
We need those driverless cars in Afghanistan, although the enemy will just find new methods of death and destruction.
by Laborious
Is he praying for no blue screen of death? LOL