Sentience, a system being developed in the UK, is smart enough to control acceleration and brakes, and according to researchers, a step towards fully autonomous vehicles. As of now, the system uses GPS, and coupled with detailed topographical information, the vehicle can maneuver through the roads. A smart phone on cellular network Orange gets the GPS information, and it is linked to the r-cube. The r-cube executes the acceleration/ braking in accordance to the information it receives via the phone.
The system is still in its infancy, but left to itself, it drives in the most fuel efficient way, providing savings of up to 24 percent. If the car is alone on the road, the driver needs only to steer, however, if there are other vehicles on the road, the driver will have to take charge of braking and acceleration as well, because as of now, the system cannot process traffic data in real time. But the system is still under development, and more improvements can be expected. If all goes well, the Sentient will reach production vehicles by 2012.
Via: Discovery
