Another Dream Come True: Station Wagon as Scientific Research Platform!

Have you ever heard of the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge? I had not either. Sponsored by DARPA, this competition has been testing autonomous driving technology.

In 2007 a team from Germany entered their Volkswagen Passat wagon in the challenge. Apparently, they have been working on it for quite awhile as I found a reference for them being in this year's (2011) event as well. VERY COOL!

Their description:

Team AnnieWAY is a spin-off of the collaborative research centre “Cognitive Automobiles” [1], which
was initiated by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2006. The project’s overall theme is the
systematic and interdisciplinary research of machine cognition in the context of mobile systems. The
ultimate goal is the creation of a vehicle which is capable of navigating fully autonomously in both urban
and highway traffic.
The team currently comprises five researchers from the fields machine vision, real time architectures,
robotic motion planning, control theory and cognitive science. Team AnnieWAY managed to advance to
the final stage of the DARPA Urban Challenge, which was held in California in 2007. Here [2], autonomous
navigation among other traffic participants was demonstrated, along with manoeuvres in constrained
spaces, like parking and 3-point turning.



For more information and video of the wagon in action see it here:

 

Well my Passatt wagon takes the fun out of driving. I guess its only natural that their Passatt wagon takes the driver out of driving.

I like driving myself, and dread the day when the car is just an appliance to be programmed to take me where I want to go with no more interaction with the vehicle than a keystroke.

 

Ditto it won't be driving, it will be riding!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ56biCBja4



Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not even a fan of crusie control.

 

Oh, I completely understand. I am not so sure about autopilot for autos. And my thought about the German team was, "If you guys can do this, maybe you can help VW make a reliable car period." Another team from Stanford with VW sponsorship and Passat wagon tied for first place.

I suspect this all is more of a technology demonstrator kind of level research. My excitement was to see a station wagon used in science research. There were also SUVs and even a Taurus in the event. Has anyone else I wonder, heard of a wagon being used for research, as part of the experiment itself or as a support vehicle?

 

Well, if you've ever had right leg nerve pain like I have, cruise control can be a very good friend on a long drive. I noticed the Ford video was done when Mercury was still around. Another horrible automotive blunder was their killing off Mercury.

 

I do use my crusie on long trips, just not a fan. If they could only come up with something for "FAS" now that would be technology.

 

Depends on the kind of research. Maybe this clip from the 1965 movie, The Silencers, is a teaser for the kind of research Dean Martin's character, Matt Helm, had in mind for the Barris customized interior of his 65 Colony Park wagon with the built in bar, curved sofa like back seat/ bed etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90y0Q0lAgJc&feature=related

In the following clip you can see the only exterior changes (two door instead of 4 door and an extra window post in the way back).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxLEYJcajD8