Jeremy Clarkson Rides in Autonomous Auto

Jeremy Clarkson, host of perhaps my favorite television show Top Gear, took out a modified BMW 3-series on last week's show. The car was driven around the track once by a human, recording telemetry, and then played back the course using a combination of that data and military-grade GPS data at speeds of up to 100 MPH.

We're getting closer and closer to pilotless cars!

(Hey, what's the name of that short story, probably several decades old, about the family that gets trapped in the car that won't stop driving and refueling, causing them to eventually die? I remember the story, but nothing about its name or author.)

[via Oh Gizmo]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , December 7, 2007 12:17 PM]

I don't know about the particular story you mention, but I was reminded of another story by Larry Niven, Titled "Safe at any Speed".

OT: my captcha was "navy profit", which I immediately laid out in my mind as:
1. navy
2. ?
3. profit!

[#2 posted by pork musket , December 7, 2007 12:36 PM]

That is awesome.

[#3 posted by Marie , December 7, 2007 1:04 PM]

I love top gear. My absolute favorite show on TV.

I was shocked bmw came out with this because it was just on here (in the USA a year late) the new mercedes that when you set the cruise it will come to a stop if the person in front of you stops. I thought that was crazy, this is insane.

[#4 posted by Registrado , December 7, 2007 1:23 PM]

Regards to Captain Dunsel.

[#5 posted by Daniel Rutter , December 7, 2007 2:51 PM]

Asimov included driverless cars with positronic brains in a few stories. "Sally" is probably the most notable.

I, too, vaguely remember a story with robot cars still carrying their dead passengers - but I think they did it deliberately, when they decided to go rogue and join the car packs roving the open freeways.

I recall the cars preferring to develop an "exhaust defect" to do in the passengers quickly and quietly. It's so unseemly if you leave them scrabbling and screaming for days. They leave your upholstery in a terrible state.

[#6 posted by Freddie Freelance , December 7, 2007 4:27 PM]

I, too, vaguely remember a story with robot cars still carrying their dead passengers - but I think they did it deliberately, when they decided to go rogue and join the car packs roving the open freeways.

I think that story was written by Harlan Ellison (or maybe William "Rollerball" Harrison?), and the cars kept the mummified remains of their drivers behind the wheel to throw off suspicion? The idea of vehicle's continuing on after their drivers die has been used in a number of SciFi settings, "Dr Who" & "Judge Dred" for two.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , December 7, 2007 7:40 PM]

Roger Zelazny's "Devil Car" and "Auto-Da-Fe", its sequel, are the short stories you're thinking of.

[#8 posted by Marie , December 7, 2007 8:34 PM]

Also, Poor Stig. Now we will really never know who he is.