(코리아타운뉴스) Eight Censors Prevent Collisions

First ride of autonomous vehicle, Transdev

As soon as a pedestrian appears, the moving vehicle made a smooth stop. No passengers were taken aback as the stop was not at all made suddenly.

An autonomous vehicle, a car that drives without a driver, made its first public appearance in Los Angeles on Jan. 6 for a test drive for local governments, transportation specialists and technical researchers as part of an event held by ATI21, a group consisting of nationwide transportation, innovation and technology leaders.

The vehicle at the event, named Transdev, is a 12-passenger car. It was available for a test drive on a premade track designed by L.A. Cleantech Incubator.

On the exterior, the vehicle was reminiscent of a small shuttle bus. There was no need for passengers to hold protective handles as the drive was smooth throughout. Even the cameras that were taken inside the vehicle to film the test drive hardly ever shook. Transdev’s maximum speed is 25 miles per hour, but the vehicle this writer test drove was designed for taking passengers around campuses and tourist sightseeing areas, which only drives at 10 miles per hour.

The autonomous vehicle has eight censors installed around its body, enabling itself to identify pedestrians who suddenly appear during the drive, according to ATI21. The vehicle also had no designated front and back so that it can drive forward or back out according to the way it is programmed.

The two internal monitors consistently provided driving information as well as traffic updates in addition to a stop button that a passenger can press in emergency.

Some journalists at the event agreed that Transdev reminded them of a mix between a low-speed hybrid vehicle and a golf cart. It was also conceivable that using Transdev as a shuttle at venues, including schools such as UCLA and USC, would mean that the passengers may have to wait quite some time.

“Autonomous vehicle will change our lives in many ways,” said ATI21 president Paul Brubaker. “Most notably, it could reduce the mistakes of human drivers by 80 percent.”

Commonly, 95 percent of traffic accidents that have occurred were caused by human errors, according to a recent study. Another attractive element of an autonomous vehicle is that it is ecofriendly as it runs on electricity.

Various officials from L.A.’s Department of Transportation, Economic & Workforce Development Department and Foothill Transit also attended the Jan. 6 conference to share their insights. Auto research firms, including Easymile and Splunk, also sent speakers to the event to share information about how to further develop autonomous vehicles.

Among the organizations in attendance, nonprofit group L.A. Cleantech Incubators displayed its track record of dogged research on ecofriendly vehicles. It also apparently created approximately 1,200 new jobs by funding $1 billion to 60 different businesses over the last five years.

A speaker from Splunk also added that while many people believe that autonomous vehicles are driven by an underdeveloped computer programs, the truth is that the data transmitted through the program send one gigabyte of information per second. The data includes the likes of weather, environmental factors, passenger habits, road surface and nearby vehicles being driven alongside the autonomous vehicle.

Another big point of discussion was the necessary support needed from federal and local governments.

“California and L.A. relatively have open policy to autonomous vehicles, but federal governments and other states still have a long way to go in terms of easing their policies,” said Brubaker. “Singapore and other Asian countries are already utilizing the technology, which tells you a lot.”

ATI21 has already hosted a similar conference in Las Vegas and it plans to be in Midwestern and the East Coast from March to April.


By Brian Choi