Automotive

Delphi's self-driving car completes US coast-to-coast trip

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Delphi says that 99 percent of the drive from San Francisco to New York was fully automated
The trip from San Francisco to New York covered nearly 3,400 miles (5,500 km) and took nine days
Delphi says that 99 percent of the drive from San Francisco to New York was fully automated

British-based auto-firm Delphi has completed a journey from San Francisco to New York with its self-driving car. The trip, announced in March, covered nearly 3,400 miles (5,500 km) and took nine days. Delphi says it is the first US coast-to-coast trip ever taken by an automated vehicle.

Delphi's Roadrunner car set of with a group of engineers from Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay on March 22. The subsequent journey took it through 15 states and the District of Columbia.

The Roadrunner was faced with a wide variety of driving situations to navigate during the trip, including traffic circles, construction zones, bridges, tunnels, aggressive drivers and differing weather conditions. Although an engineer was in the driving seat ready to take control if needed, Delphi says the car undertook 99 percent of the drive in fully automated mode.

The vehicle is equipped with numerous technologies in order to drive autonomously. These include six long-range radars, four short-range radars, three vision-based cameras, six Lidar sensors, a localization system, intelligent software algorithms and a full suite of Advanced Drive Assistance Systems.

The systems installed help with activities like collision mitigation, object detection, forward collision warnings and lane departure warnings. Over the course of the trip, nearly three terabytes of data was collected from the Roadrunner's systems. The data collected will help Delphi to continue developing safety technology.

You can see a video diary of the nine-day trip in the video playlist below.

Source: Delphi

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7 comments
Excellency Neckbeard
What was the 1%? Why?
Bill Bennett
Was the 1% for fuel stops?
Grunchy
Automated taxis, automated freight delivery. Costs will go down & so will road accidents. Much reduced drunk driving accidents! Yay!
Daishi
Re: 1% In the segment I watched about the car the driver took over for it through a construction zone. I think automation is going to require a driver be at the wheel and ready to take over for a long time.
Some of the features will be useful as "driver assist" features before we get full automation. Things like slowing a car for a driver inevitably about to rear end the car in front of them would be useful to have in the short term future.
Tom Lee Mullins
I think a self driving car could make roads a little safer. If a person is tired or fatigued, or had a little too much to drink, a self driving car could get them home safely.
I would like a self driving car but only if I have an option of driving it myself. I do like to drive. Long drives can be tedious.
drender
99%? So it only crashes 1% of the time? I'm guessing a driver with a .30 BAC has a better accident rate than that.
Jack Decker
Sorry, but in no way or kind is this a first. In 1995, Carnegie-Mellon University did it. Google "No Hands Across America". Why it was called that was because shortly before that, lots of people across America did "Hands Across America" benefit/publicity event for the homeless, hungry, and poor and thus CMU was trying to gain additional publicity for their autonomous vehicle stunt by doing a funny spin on their event's name. Basically, CMU was saying, "Look, Mom! No hands!"