The prospect of getting into a driverless car freaks me out. Sure, I love technology, and on a logical level, I understand The Future will be one where the road is nothing but autonomous vehicles zipping around. Accidents, a thing of the past. It could be glorious. And yet, it just feels off. I don’t want to get in a car that has a steering wheel that moves on its own. It’s weird. I don’t like it.
If you’re anything like me, then I have good news. Researchers at the University of Tokyo are working on a humanoid robot that can drive cars. As in, a human-like robot complete with arms, legs and a head, sitting in the front seat, steering the wheel and operating the pedals like a real-life homo sapien.
The researchers have dubbed the musculoskeletal humanoid Musashi (cute) and, so far, Musashi has proven it can successfully navigate small electric cars around a test track. Nice job, Musashi.
Musashi can ‘see’ the road thanks to its two cameras, which are placed roughly where human eyes would be. It even uses the car’s rear and side mirrors to suss out everything going on around it — which already makes it automatically better than 90% of the drivers in Melbourne.
It can also do all the other things that humans driving cars tend to do, like start the engine using keys, operate turn signals, and even flip people off.
Oh, sorry, that last feature is still in development. But two out of three ain’t bad.
You can check out the full paper here, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Or here’s a nice video if you can’t be arsed reading:
Main image: University of Tokyo.
