I had expected to see a blue 200 DARPA Urban Challenge Lotus Elise covered with sensor equipment but the autonomous Lotus Elise that is on display at the Proton Technology week had a different coat of paint and less equipment. It also had its top off.
The car guides itself around with a combination of laser measurements sensors, high accuracy GPS, and radar. It actually doesn’t work as well than it should have here in Malaysia because alot of the sensor equipment had to be removed because they were classified as sensitive equipment and was not allowed to be exported out of the US.
The vehicle followed a path very slowly around a little “track” formed with cones. After awhile it stopped and seemed to require some reprogramming, which allowed us to see what lied under its bonnet at the rear. The Lotus engineers plugged in a Dell notebook and did some magic and the car was able to self-drive again soon after.
Have a look at what’s under the Elise’s hood after the jump, together with a video of the car on the cone track.
VIDEO: Autonomous Lotus Elise at Proton Shah Alam
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this technology could redefine the term “Computer Crash”… make it more literal more like it… haha.. cool though…
I am sure P1 is heading the right direction, at least at this moment. I do hope P1 will enhance their effort in the producing hybrid car in the country, as these cars will be the best option than those with biofuel. All the best to P1.
Hahaha.. there is this episode of Top Gear where a 3 series is fitted with a system similar to this.. after the car goes round the track ones, it can then drive round it automatically.. but the difference is, it floors it, takes corners like a pro and breaks appropriately.
Good technology!~
But i would rather want most of the technology be put in sourcing more energy to replace the highly price petrol.
Paul, i’m just curious. What type of fuel this Elise is running on? Because the colour theme of Exige 265E running on E85 bio-ethanol sans the black colour.
Pretty impressive.
The mentioned subject aside, proton should be do something practicality: improving on their engine and the car in respond to the soaring price of fuel.
electric car, bio-fuel, hybrids etc…get my drift?
IMO proton should fix their ‘power window’ 1st… then do all those hybrid ka bio-fuel car ka whatever
good thing no cheap and cheap thing no good that is proton.Fix your complain first.
osh_kosh, n delos3nos, what complain u mean? power window problem? er, ask around 1st, do they still exist?! hmm fix urself 1st, b4 put out another comment tat fits the 90s, its 2008 now
scorpicore, i think we’re wrong to harp on hybrids. biofuels are a totally different subject alltogether.. the cars remain the same, except that the fuel is derived from plant-based sources, as apposed to fossil fuels.
as for hybrids, just go to europe, and you will hardly see any hybrids.. why? because they’re expensive, and possibly fussy to fix in the long run… hybrid sales are also starting to fall in the US.
the latest bunch of eco-diesel cars in europe have actually surpassed the hybrids for fuel consumption, and even produce less CO2 and is far cheaper to maintain and buy in the first place.
i think the best solution right now, is to go for fuels that you will burn less, that costs less than petrol.
as for full electric cars, i believe battery technology is still too expensive, and not perfected.
i wonder if our computer brethen can beat the crap out of us normal driver. now thats gonna be a challenge, since they are going to be almost zero errors for them
not hard to do if you’re in the field. just plug in the coordinates and the car will drive itself there. can only cheat kampung folks. there’s no variable obstacles like other cars or humans walking about on the track.
yea inconvieniences caused by car window break downs problably cost more to fix than buying a new battery say IF they had a true hybrid tech like toyota and not some china knock off like i beleive proton would use just to qualify as a hybrid or maybe a diesel engine for that matter.
This technologies is a very good aid for those who wants to take a nap while driving long distant.
Or may be for those disable people to get at least a chance to be in driver seat.
Good job in this tech. I still love it drive around without error. Nice if it can park it self too (reverse side parking).
topgunthang…wah you so genius arr can do this system just plug in a coordinate…you must be very good engineer indeed…as far as i know combining an automatic control to a mechanical mechanism is hard and take a lot of time and lots of devices…even the programming is complex to program…not just plug n play…you think this is NFS series arr…believe me it not only one man job…its take a team to do this kind of engineering system…for me its was a good R&D for the future…yeargh maybe rite now it can be done easily without an obstacle but everthing need a start rite…if the system is stable and reliable the next step is applying aux sensor to it so it can detect obstacle…next more system…until the tech is perfect to reach us the consumer…that was R&D all about…
lotus elise? i rather have an Audi TT
I saw this on TV man… it’s so cool… I wonder why the US is worried bout the so-called “sensitive” equipment hehe…
Wait, after it stops you’ll hear a transforming noise… it’s an Autobot I tell you~!
Lots and lots of Lotus stuff at Proton show.
The bus operator should consider this. It may reduced accident and save a lot of budget to hire incompetent driver instead.
fastcx said,
August 3, 2008 @ 5:19 am
osh_kosh, n delos3nos, what complain u mean? power window problem? er, ask around 1st, do they still exist?! hmm fix urself 1st, b4 put out another comment tat fits the 90s, its 2008 now
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no need to ask around… my dad used to own a brand new perdana.. 2004 model.. after less than 2nd year, passenger power window on the driver side already can’t go up.. my little bro bought a 2006 saga, both the front power window failed after not even a year!!! my little sister used to own a 2001 wira, also got power window problem… my friend own a 2003 waja, also got power window problem.. all this car are brand new & bought after the 90s… i only point out power window problem, just to add.. my dad need to changed his perdana gearbox in 2007 (he changed to a re-cond gearbox), failed him again last April (not even a year but maybe u can ignored it as he used the re-cond gearbox).. got feed up, he bought another re-cond gearbox & sold the car.. till the day he sold it, the power window was not fixed.. yes u can fixed all this thing but asked yourself if it’s ok for u to have all this problem with a brand new car? u can accepted it if u bought a 2nd hand car but not with a brand new ones! i own a 2003 kancil, power window never failed me till this day! infact, nothing had failed me! all my cars never failed me! i own 3 others foreign car & it worked just fine!! maybe it is u who should ask more ppl! wake up… there’s still flaw in proton car! my bro in law bought a persona, he booked before the launch & after 2 month his car stop all of the sudden in the middle of federal h/way, it was centralised fuse problem, but so far his persona power window work just fine(i hope it will stay that way) .. as for me, i still think proton is a shitty car.. enuff said..
hi, sadly, thats too bad osh kosh, i think all those probs are based on luck.. my family did bought a wira back back in 2000 for my mum, used for 1 year but still keep it until now (still here but being used by my cousin who just got his P).. n then upgrade to perdana v6 in 2001 (but the perdana was sold in 2003..) for the existing wira, all 4 windows are doing fine.. never been changed at all. they still wind up n down normally.. just that the front driver windows is slower than other windows.. n got some vertical scratches at the window n i think this may be common as i even see scratches in benz.. juz giving my opinion on specified proton wira model.. i dont know about the current problems as im not using any proton.. cheers =)
I believe it’s using GPS just like the Top Gear did with the BMW 3 series.
look cool but not so why ???? Mythbuster do it more better like RC car hehehe … Peace yo proton. for other it might look high tech for me just a command in your laptop yes no bla bla bla …