Robot racer
Technology not there; besides it’s hard to top driving
Competitor Guillaume Fernandes of the Père-René-de-Galinée Cavalier Robotics racing team straightens his self-driving car at the International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition Saturday at UW.
WATERLOO — Sure they’ll help build self-driving cars. But will the brightest science students also buy one? Maybe not.
“I love driving,” said Sahit Chintalapudi, 18, a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “There are very few experiences that can top an open sun roof and loud music with friends.”
“I like cars and I enjoy driving,” said Lefteris Spetsakis, 19, of the University of Waterloo. “I don’t know if I really want to give up that pleasure.”
“I love driving. I’m fine with just driving on my own,” said Hojin Mok, 21, at UW.
“I enjoy driving too,” said Jason Bizily, 23, also up from the Georgia school.
“I’d probably definitely consider it,” said Ryan Waldheim, 20, another Georgia school student. “For me, price is a huge factor.”
Engineering and science students from eight schools gathered in Waterloo Saturday to race selfdriving robot cars around a university parking lot.
Their toy cars, designed and built by student teams, are roughly the size of pizza boxes.
They twitched, veered and lurched around the course, using lasers and webcams and software to guide them.
Students who built them expect many years will pass before people will sit in the back seat and trust self-driving cars to chauffeur them around.
The technology isn’t there yet. There are unresolved issues around collision liability, public acceptance, and economic dislocation if driving jobs disappear.
“I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect autonomous car, at least in Canada, because of our winters,” said UW student Matthew Post, 25. He struggles to see a car driving itself in a snow storm.
“I think autonomous vehicles will be the future. It’s a lot safer,” Mok said, citing human mistakes that cause crashes.
“But in terms of how close we are, I think we’re still a solid 10 or 15 years away.”
“I think it’s definitely coming. It will roll out in stages,” said Chintalapudi.
“Five, 10 years from now maybe we’ll have to sit in the driver’s seat with the wheel, but it will drive itself on the highways.
“Fifteen years from now it will take over small roads, but we need to be ready in case some weird instance happens.
“Maybe 20 or 30 (years) and then you can sit in the back seat.”