search technology reviews, news, features, group tests
Popular Searches:   video , dell , free
 |  Register
 |  Newsletters  | 
Sitemap  |  RSS
RSS
Monday November 23, 2009 7:29 PM AEST
Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > News > Driverless vehicles 'within a decade'
NEWS

Driverless vehicles 'within a decade'

by Iain Thomson  on Jan 11, 2008
No news on the flying model.
The chief executive of General Motors told delegates at the Consumer Electronics Show that driverless cars will be a reality in a decade or less.

Rick Wagoner, delivering the first CES keynote by an automotive producer, said that advances in the automatic control of vehicles are bearing fruit, and unveiled a prototype Chevy Tahoe being developed by his company.

"The future of the auto is bright and increasingly electronic. Autonomous driving means that someday you could do your email, eat breakfast, do your makeup and watch a video while commuting to work," he said.

"In other words, you could do all the things you do now while commuting to work but do them safely."

General Motors plans to test driverless cars by 2015 and have them in production by 2018.

The company has been heavily involved in the move towards automatic cars, and provided the winning entry in this year's Darpa Urban Challenge.

The cars of the future will also communicate with each other, according to Wagoner, so that if one has to break sharply the cars will behind slow down automatically.

General Motors is also introducing Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, a system that automatically shuts down the engine of a stolen car in an effort to cut the 30,000 high-speed pursuits that take place on America's roads every year.

Wagoner also unveiled the Chevy Provoq, a concept car that uses a hydrogen fuel cell, a solar cell roof and lithium batteries for power. It can reach 0-60 in 8.5 seconds and run for 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen.

Copyright © 2009 v3.co.uk
Email a Friend Email this
Print Page Print this
Tweet This Tweet this
Feedback Send us your tips


Ads by Google

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Login or register to submit a comment.
 

Top Stories

Telstra confirm 30Mbit national network plan - but don't mention the NBN
Telstra has completed the 100Mbit upgrade to their Melbourne cable network and are next planning to get 30Mbit speeds into the rest of the country; but first they'll need to dispel those endless NBN comparisons
 
Red Hat updates with Fedora 12
Red Hat has released the latest version of its Fedora open source operating system and has added new video, virtualisation and networking support..
 
Picking the perfect home entertainment box: Movie downloads come to the Xbox 360
Unmetered download agreements are next the battleground as games consoles follow the Apple TV's lead to support movie download services.
 


 
Intel
 
 
LogMeIn
 
 
Amazing Dell Coupons now available
 
Discover Apple