Stanford to Spearhead Intelligent Vehicles Revolution with Cars that can See Around the Corner

The book on intelligent and self-driving vehicles is far from being written as proved by a small team from Stanford University who managed to put together the first smart car that can see around the corner. Based on pulse-bouncing technology, Stanford’s version of the self-driving vehicle will be able to navigate the environment better and detect road hazards.

Intelligent Vehicles Wil Use Tracking Algorithm to Adjust Trajectory

According to the Stanford team, future intelligent vehicles will be able to sense and avoid obstacles which are not located in their peripheral view. The technology they’ve been experimenting with over the past few years is based on high-powered lasers that improve the car’s field of view, especially when it comes to hidden obstacles.

As explained, the car will have a laser system mounted up front and a photon detector right next to it. What happens is that the laser shoots a short burst of highly concentrated photos in the nearby area. The particles will bounce off objects such as traffic signs, vehicles making a turn, cyclists, pedestrians, and street corners.

The bouncing photons will be captured by the detector which will analyze them and adjust the vehicle’s trajectory accordingly. According to the Stanford team, the procedure used to analyze object via bouncing photons can take anywhere from two minutes to two hours based on the surrounding environment and, of course, how reflective the surfaces are.

Conclusion

The intelligent car’s camera can further cut down on time needed to plot trajectory changes, making the car take the appropriate course of action in a matter of seconds. However, the team declared that the system is still under development and that they want to cut down even further on the intelligent vehicle’s response time.

Image source: Wikipedia