As the human race slowly accepts artificially-intelligent, self-driving cars, it’d be nice to know they’re safe. Coast Autonomous is going to an extreme length to make sure of that. The creators of a range of self-driving vehicles have recruited one of the best drivers in history, Dario Franchitti.
The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner will serve as a ‘driving coach’ to Coast’s autonomous vehicle system.
“Apart from driving ability, to be a winning race car driver involves many attributes including precision, attention to detail, continuous risk assessment and a constant effort to improve,” said Franchitti in a statement. “But above all else, safety comes first. Coast shares this same winning philosophy. Since Coast asked me to join the team, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about everything I do in a car that had previously been subconscious after years of professional driving.”
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“I watch the slightest movement of a driver’s head or the twitch of a front wheel, so I know when and how a vehicle is going to change direction before it actually does. I am planning to teach these skills to the Coast engineers.” Newest Coast Team Member, Dario Franchitti pic.twitter.com/QsadUEQOoZ
— COAST Autonomous (@CoastAV) March 6, 2018
Here’s what you need to know:
-Coast wants to provide an alternative for people to get from place to place in cities and towns around the world. The idea is that you jump on your smart phone, call up a Coast vehicle and you’re on your way. They also hope the zero-emission vehicles can be used as shuttles at places like airports and car rental lots.
-Franchitti will provide input to Coast’s robotics and artificial intelligence algorithms. As a ‘tutor’, the hope is that he can help improve not only vehicle performance, but safety as well.
-Said Coast’s Managing Director, Adrian Sussmann: “The Coast Autonomous vehicles are at the cutting edge of self-driving vehicle technology. It is fitting that one of the world’s most skilled drivers add his considerable talents to the effort. It seems completely obvious to us that if you are developing self-driving software you should understand how someone of Dario’s caliber drives. It will be a privilege for our engineers to work with him and make sure that Coast’s self-driving systems continue to be the very best.”
SportTechie Takeaway:
Self-driving vehicles aren’t some pipe-dream tens of years away from deployment. The recent Winter Olympics in PyeongChang featured a test of Hyundai’s self-driving car where five vehicles set out on a 118-mile trek from Seoul to PyeongChang. Each arrived safely and the company hopes to get them in production and on the road by 2021. And the Cowboys and Rangers introduced self-driving cars at their stadiums in Texas to shuttle fans to and from the parking lots.
As if the idea of a self-driving car isn’t worrisome enough, how about one going 190 miles per hour? Quadriplegic former Indy Racing League driver Sam Schmidt went that fast in an autonomous vehicle by only using head movements. Sanctioned international racing events are yet to permit self-driving cars in competition, but Formula 1 has considered autonomous, AI-powered pace cars, which limit the speed of the competing cars on the track for safety purposes.