Comments on: VAIL Demonstrates Autonomous Valet Parking System

By: LiDAR Mapping

LiDAR Mapping — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:20:10 +0000

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing system used to collect topographic data. This technology is being used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA scientists to document topographic changes along shorelines.

By: exequiel b

exequiel b — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:48:19 +0000

To Steven;
People love driving cars, Not Parking them.. loll

By: Evan Ackerman

Evan Ackerman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:05:01 +0000

The new thing about this demonstration is the lack of any complex custom hardware. This is basically an off the lot car. And the best automated cars do a pretty good job, even on real world courses… Search BotJunkie for DARPA Urban Challenge to see some examples of this.

By: Steven

Steven — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:04:06 +0000

This isn’t in any way new. Volkswagen has been showing off robotic self parking cars since at least 1993, and various automated driving technologies have been around in working prototype stages for well over half a century. The current problem is that while computers are very powerful, they are incredibly stupid. You not only have to account for people, but shopping carts, other cars, and many other constantly shifting variables, and unlike simple stationary obstacles, the position of a wandering child is much harder to predict to the accuracy that would be required for safe parking. Even the best automated cars driving on simple courses still fail spectacularly when compared to humans, and unless there is an unprecedented breakthrough in the near future, that will remain the case for quite a while. Who would want a car that can do a poor job driving itself when they can do a better job in a fraction of the time? Then, of course, there is the reason that the countless automated driving technologies of the past never caught on, and that is, simply, people love driving cars.