Friday, June 01, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
After Google now Volvo tests self driving cars
The city traffic worldwide is getting intense day by day with the addition of new cars. In India as well when car makers offer such cars as Maruti Ertiga or Chevrolet Beat Diesel that are not only value for money then what is expected is more and more cars on the roads. Besides Tata Nano has also upgraded many from a two wheeler to four wheel car. In such a situation, Swedish car maker Volvo is testing self driving cars in Spain. That too on a public motorway. This testing will not only help Volvo rate its effectiveness it will also decide the future of unmanned or auto driven cars.
It is to be mentioned here that search engine giant Google has recently got the license to test self driving car in US. Google has also been reported to be in talks with a few car makers.
During the pilot project named Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) project, four Volvo cars that included three cars and a truck were tested. These cars had a pilot truck in front of them that was driven by a driver. All the three cars were equipped with radar systems, lasers and a lot of cameras that helped them to be on road and also assessed the traffic around them. Initial reports suggest that the project has been more than successful and all went well in the preliminary run. All the Volvo cars following the driver driven truck accelerated, braked and tuned to the speed of the following truck.
The test run performed on the motorway in Barcelona tested the self driving Volvo cars for a distance of over 200 km and that to at a speed of 85 kmph. These tests will open up a new way for cars to be autonomous driven and will ease pressure on the driver by taking control of a lot of operation automatically. Besides, this will also enhance traffic safety as the sensors fitted on the cars will sense the vehicles around and will help avert any accident. The European Commission is funding this ambitious project and the project is led by Ricardo UK.
