SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES
The planet’s roads and highways are not yet populated with driverless vehicles, but that has more to do with legal matters than technological limitations. At CES 2022, there was no shortage of prototype, self-driving automobile cockpits on display, making it clear that automated personal travel is what the future holds. But when it came to the here and now, it was the debut of the first fully autonomous tractor, from stalwart American farm machinery company John Deere, that was all the buzz. This heavy-duty rig is equipped with a GPS guidance system and six pairs of stereo cameras, allowing for 360-degree obstacle detection and the calculation of distance. By continuously checking its position relative to a geofence, it remains operating where it’s supposed to (accurate to within less than 1 inch). The tractor is scheduled to be available to farmers later this year.
On a side note, this year’s CES also hosted an exciting selfdriving race car competition called the ‘Indy Autonomous Challenge’. The vehicle that took home the US$150,000 first prize was the Polimove – a collaboration between the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and the University of Alabama (USA) – which not only managed to edge past the TUM car in the final lap, but also also set a new land speed record for autonomous racecars, reaching an incredible 175.96 mph (283.18 kph).