I thought we had GPS navigation systems with their traffic control capability to let you know whether to take a particular route to work or home or not, depending on just how heavy the traffic is at that point in time. Well, how about a smart car that has just gotten smarter, where it is able to make decisions on your behalf without the help of a dedicated GPS navigation unit attached to your dashboard?
That’s what we’re talking about with this robotic car technology that is being worked on at Oxford University, where it will interpret its surroundings while make decisions on where to go in order to remove the angst and stress created by driving through – nay, inching through traffic jams as well as accidents.
This new technology that the Oxford researchers have installed on a ‘Wildcat’ vehicle built by BAE Systems, might just be the death knell for dedicated GPS navigation systems, as it not only improves navigation precision, but will lower emissions, interpret local traffic conditions, and track risks to boot. Not only that, since this is a robotic car, you get a true blue hands-free experience, although I’m quite sure you would be rather nervous sitting in it for the first time. Heck, even James Bond did not have anything this cool.