It appears that the driverless cars are becoming a hot commodity! Sadly, it appears that the US is lagging behind China and Japan dramatically. But, it appears that many of the designs are following the Drone methodology instead, letting the vehicles be piloted by a human “in the loop.” “Our idea is not that a car should totally replace the driver, but that it will give the driver freedom,” Yu Kai, Baidu’s top AI researcher, told the South China Morning Post. (Wan, A. and Nam, W, 4/20/2015) “So the car is intelligent enough to operate by itself, like a horse, and make decisions depending on different road situations.” 

That equine analogy has been used before, notably by design guru Don Norman in a keynote speech last summer. (Ross, 12/30/2014) “Loose reins: the horse is in control and takes you home. Tight reins are to force the horse to do things that are uncomfortable—but not dangerous.”  After a hundred years of automotive progress, we’re still measuring the cars in relation to horses! 🙂

Baidu’s self-driving car project is on track, if you’ll pardon my pun, to hit Beijing highways by end of the year, just as the company’s CEO had suggested.

References
Ross, P. (12/30/2014). Europe’s Smart Highway will Shepherd Cars from rotterdam to vienna. IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/advanced-cars/europes-smart-highway-will-shepherd-cars-from-rotterdam-to-vienna

Wan, A. and Nan, W. (4/20/2015). Baidu’s Yu Kai talks autonomous cars, artificial intelligence and the future of search. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1767799/baidus-yu-kai-talks-autonomous-cars-artificial-intelligence-and-future