Live Test of Driverless Cabs in Korea
Frederick Lowe
Al Roker, the weatherman on the Today show, recently complained that New York City cabs passed by him and his son to pick up a white guy.
That form of racial discrimination could disappear with use of driverless cabs, which are being tested live in South Korea.
Seoul National University is using the driverless cabs to pick up students with disabilities, Seo Seung-Woo, the school’s director of the Intelligent Vehicle Research Center, told Huffington Post.
The cab, called Snuber, works in conjunction with a hailing smartphone app also created by the university. Snuber has been navigating the 44,200 square-foot campus for the past six months without any accidents.
Snuber has a fixture on its roof with LiDAR devices that scan road conditions, reports U.S. News & World Report.
The campus puts several limitations on the test. The Snuber cannot travel faster than the 18.6 miles-per-hour campus’ speed limit, and there are no full traffic lights.
Snuber applies the brakes at stop signs and cross walks, and if another vehicle is stopped in the middle of the road, Snuber will scan other lanes to detect vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. If there are no other vehicles, Snuber moves into traffic.
The Snuber announcement comes as General Motors reports it invested $500 million in the Lyft ride-hailing service that could lead to driverless taxis. South Korea-based Hyundai said it would get driverless cars on roads by 2030.
Japan’s Robot Taxi plans to be carrying visitors to the 2020 Olympics and the CityMobil2 project in Europe conducted a number of successful live projects last year.
The campus is a controlled environment, but by early 2020, driverless cars could be running on some highways, and by 2030, a service like Snuber will offering door-to-door pickup.
