Robot cars with lasers spotted in… Daventry?
Who knew Northamptonshire was this exciting? The town of Daventry is currently home to a bunch of driverless cars using lasers to find their way around. They’re called Cybercars, and are being pitched as a potential way to increase the use of public transport.
It’s all part of an EC scheme called CityMobil, with the Cybercars running on a light track, and designed to be used in pedestrianised zones and tourist areas. “We can build lots more car parks and have lots more cars going in, or we can look at a viable alternative to the car,” local council leader Chris Millar tells the Beeb. “We believe this could be the answer.”
There are a few potential pitfalls though…
a.) Some kind of central server breakdown makes the system grind to a halt.
b.) Mischievous hackers rewire the Cybercars to go at 98mph. Backwards.
c.) The cars develop aggressive AI and spark a Daventry-wide man-vehicle laser war.
Still, assuming those can all be avoided (particularly c), Cybercars could be seen on more British streets in the future.
CyberCars website (via BBC News Online)
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One thought on “Robot cars with lasers spotted in… Daventry?”
Whilst getting as many people to use public transport as possible can only be a good thing. And the thought of using a car that directs itself using lasers is very cool; I’m not exactly convinced this is a solution. Mainly because the ‘Cybercar’ so damn ugly. I mean who would want to drive through a pedestrian zone in something that looks like a toy milk float from the 70’s? Perhaps if they’d taken a bit longer on the design – there is hardly anything ‘cyber’ about the way it looks – I’d be more inclined to ride in one. Less cream and more metallic black I would think?
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