Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as robotic cars, or driverless
cars, already exist in prototype, and are expected to be commercially
available around 2020. According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehicles—in conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasure—could reduce the world's 800 million vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades.
This would be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers,
which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would be traded for
public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would
also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular
need—a bus
could come for a group of people, a limousine could come for a special
night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip down the street for
one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the US alone.
Google Driverless Car
The Google Driverless Car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for driverless cars. The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.
The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for
Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski
who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.
While Google had no immediate plans to commercially develop the system,
the company hopes to develop a business which would market the system
and the data behind it to automobile manufacturers. An attorney for the California Department of Motor Vehicles
raised concerns that "The technology is ahead of the law in many
areas," citing state laws that "all presume to have a human being
operating the vehicle". According to the New York Times,
policy makers and regulators have argued that new laws will be required
if driverless vehicles are to become a reality because "the technology
is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger of outstripping
existing law, some of which dates back to the era of horse-drawn
carriages".
The heart of the F12 Berlinetta is the naturally aspirated 6,262cc
V12 engine, which develops 730bhp
at 8,500rpm and 509lb ft of torque at 6,000rpm. The power unit is coupled with
Ferrari's F1 dual-clutch paddle-shift transmission. The car accelerates from
0-62mph in 3.1sec with a top speed of 211mph.
Design
