Originally published September 14 2005
General Motors building a self-driving car
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Opel Vectra being produced by GM has no ordinary cruise control. Augmenting on a new technology that uses infrared beam to gage distance from other cars, the Opel Vectura uses "light detection and ranging" to come to a complete stop when signaled by the car in front of it.
The car has automatic cruise control of the sort fitted to many expensive cars such as Jaguars and BMWs.
These use either radar or infrared beams fitted to the front of the car to measure the distance to the car in front.
To circumvent this problem, the new car uses lidar---short for "light detection and ranging"---a measuring technology similar to radar but which uses laser beams rather than radio waves to measure distance and determine the speed of other vehicles.
As light waves have shorter wavelengths than radio waves, the technology works at shorter distances and lower speeds.
Almost two million accidents a year worldwide are thought to be caused by drivers inadvertently changing lanes, frequently caused by drowsiness.
These systems use camera images or near-range radar to determine the direction and position of the vehicle in relation to lane markings.
When the system recognises that a lane departure is imminent, it bleeps or flashes to alert the driver.
A camera mounted on the windscreen behind the rear-view mirror gives a clear view of the road ahead, picking up the white lines even in poor visibility or where the paint has faded.
There is a second advantage to using lasers in preference to radar: while they have a similar range, laser sensors have a significantly wider field of vision.
Together, the camera and laser sensors monitor the white lines and, if the car strays out of its lane, an electronic control unit attached to an electric power-steering unit corrects it.
The system is unlikely to have a smooth ride into production, however, despite achieving what General Motors says is a very high level of reliability during the development stage.
For example, self-steering cars are currently illegal in most European countries.
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