Self-driving robot cars on their way to China

World Expo 2010 being held in Shanghai, China from 1^st May to 31^st of Oct is the 3^rd most followed worldwide event after FIFA WC and Olympics. Theme for this year’s expo is ‘better cities, better life’. Parma University, Italy are participating with their project – Autonomous Driving Technology – with the motive to show it is possible to move goods between two regions with Green Vehicles that requires virtually no human intervention.

Credit: VISLab

To demonstrate and test their prototype, VISLab has set the ‘Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge’, under this challenge two heavily modified Piaggo Porter electric robot cars began their 8,000 miles (13,000 Km, app) journey from Milan (Tuesday- July 20, 2010), after passing through the traffic of Moscow, bitter cold of Siberia and heat of Gobi desert they will arrive in Shanghai, China by the end of Oct.

Leading car will be driven autonomously but with limited human intervention during selected regions on the other hand second vehicle is 100% autonomous, will follow primarily vision. Both the vehicles are equipped with cameras and laser sensors for navigation purpose and to avoid collisions, plus technicians to take control whenever needed. Solar panels are fixed at the top of both the cars to generate power for the computer processors, sensors and the driving acurators only, as the vans are powered by their original electric engines.

This expedition is made possible by a $2.3 million grant from European Research council (ERC). The will be collected data will help in making this approach ready for commercial launch. Proposed future prospects of these eco-friendly autonomous cars includes— self driving farming and  mining vehicles, while Municipality  of Rome is planning to use these cars to deliver goods to shops and collect trash.