As if electric-powered vehicles aren’t futuristic enough, now comes word from GOOD, in a web article dated October 30, 2010, that two electric vans have just completed an 8,000 mile trip from Italy to China – without drivers!
Using a system called the Generic Obstacle and Lane Detector (GOLD), the two vans pretty much drove themselves across two continents. A system of laser scanners and video cameras worked together to make sure that the vehicles didn’t cause accidents, but in heavy traffic or at tollbooths, researchers had to step in for safety reasons.
Will this technology be available to the general public soon? Not likely. Each vehicle had to be charged for 8 hours when it ran out of power, and they averaged just 38 miles per hour, taking 4 months to make the 8,000-mile trip.
Pundits say it may be a decade or more before the technology is ready for use by the average consumer.
Still, this is a pretty amazing feat for a mode of transportation that is, in some ways, still in its infancy, and proves once again that electric power is a viable transportation solution.
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