Self Driving Papers

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Ever since the invention of the first vehicle, humans have been dreaming of an autonomous vehicle. However, only with the development of technology, small steps were taken to ultimately arrive to the project of a real self-driving car.

In the 1920’s Francis P. Houndina attempted to create a radio controlled car. It ended in disaster but, the idea of traveling in a car that was not controlled by a driver had taken hold. At the 1939 World’s Fair GM showcased the smart highway using cables to control cars. Many innovative people and companies would take up the challenge to develop such a marvelous vehicle.

It wasn’t until the late 1970’s that a truly self-driving vehicle was developed. In 1977 a Japanese team from Tsukuba Engineering …show more content…

Ernst Dickmanns and his team at Bundeswehr Universität München marked a major milestone when they developed a prototype that went 60 mph, on a closed course, the vehicle traveled 621 miles. Then, the PROMETHEUS Project, a large European R&D program, produced the first self-driving vehicle to navigate in traffic at speeds of 110 mph on the German autobahn.

In 1995 Carnegie Melon University’s NevLab developed a prototype that auto-steered and traveled 3,000 miles with human’s controlling the speed and brakes. In 1997 more than 20 self-driving cars were driven in California during the Automated Highway System’s demo. The reality of a self-driving car was starting to emerge.

The DARPA challenges started taking place. DARPA was a government sponsored program that first took place in the Mojave Desert. DARPA was designed to be a race in the desert environment with no traffic by self-driven vehicles. In 2007 DARPA III was held in an urban environment with real world driving conditions. In 2009 Google started its own R&D program with the help of DARPA engineers. By 2010 Google had outfitted cars with self-driving technology that had logged over 140,000 miles. Also in 2010 VisLab outfitted four vehicles for self-driving that crossed nine countries from Italy to China, over 8,078 miles. The vehicles operated on normal road conditions with traffic. In 2015 Google produced a working prototype