You know that self-driving cars are here and soon will be in the mass market. But you also may know that your budget isn’t ready to buy one.
Enter the highly adaptable robot being developed to perform all the functions of driving a vehicle. Israeli startup IVObility is developing a robot that can sit in the driver’s seat of an ordinary vehicle and be the driver. The robot does not require the vehicle to have special drive-by-wire equipment, because it has its own sensors and cameras that “see” what a driver sees.
The cars we drive ourselves eventually will be replaced with those that drive themselves. IVObility’s robot will be able to drive ordinary vehicles. The company’s name combines “Intelligent Vehicle Operator” and “mobility” and is the work of Hugo Guterman, director of the Laboratory for Autonomous Robotics at Ben-Gurion University. Having already developed an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (a self-piloting submarine) called the HydroCamel, Guterman’s team is now shifting its focus to dry land.
Where most self-driving-car projects remove the vehicle’s operations from the driver’s seat, IVObility’s device literally sits right in it. The robot is almost humanoid in appearance, with a torso, a lap, a head full of sensors, arms to turn the steering wheel, and legs to work the pedals.
Because the “limbs” are mechanical, it doesn’t require the vehicle it’s operating to be fitted with drive-by-wire controls. Nor does it need a proliferation of radar, lidar, ultrasonic and other sensors to be installed around the vehicle, relying instead entirely on its own cameras to virtually see what a human driver would from behind the wheel.
The concept is simple. The execution is not so simple. CEO Tzvika Goldner says IVObility aims to launch its driving robot by the middle of 2020 and intends to offer three versions: most will be fully autonomous, but some will offer more cost-effective semi-autonomous capability or remote-controlled operation.
The startup is initially focusing on applications removed from public-street traffic, such as agriculture, mining, security and border control. It’s working to launch a pilot project at a European airport later this year and is currently seeking funding to continue development.
Goldner remains reserved on the notion of a consumer version, but the prospect of augmenting existing, driver-operated cars with plug-and-play units like IVObility’s may prove only a matter of time-whether this company makes it, or someone else does.