Driverless roadtrip hits small snags
2010-08-24 20:11
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Milan - A pair of fender-benders, two technology-loving hitchhikers and 22 hours blocked at the Russian border. That's the balance sheet so far for a team of driverless vehicles on a 13 000km road trip from Europe to China.
A group of Italian engineers from the University of Parma's Vislab are testing sensory technology that allow unmanned vehicles to avoid obstacles on the longest-ever road trip with driverless technology.
One month into the three-month journey, most errors have been human, and minor.
In Moscow, the automatic driving mechanism had to be turned off. The traffic patterns were just too chaotic.
The team departed Italy last month and is expected in Shanghai on October 18 for a final demonstration at the World Expo.
- SAPA