If automotive futurists are right, we will soon be living in a world where self-driving cars from Tesla and other automakers transport us from one destination to another while we sit around in the cabin. As we get closer to the idea, remember that engineers have actually been trying to create autonomous cars since the beginning of the 20th century. Take a look at some weird and sometimes failed attempts to get us out of the driver's seat.
The radio-controlled car that led to Houdini's arrest
In the summer of 1925, New Yorkers were greeted by an unusual sight - a driverless car driving across Broadway. The modified Chandler sedan, dubbed the American Wonder, was the work of Francis P. Goodin, a former US Army electrical engineer. The American miracle received radio signals through an antenna that controlled its speed and direction. A second vehicle containing the car's operators followed behind. The car might even hum.
Francis Goodin's radio-controlled car, dubbed "The American Miracle", appeared in 1925.
The story has a strange epilogue. The famous illusionist Harry Houdini was reportedly so annoyed that Houdin's publicity led to confusion. Houdin sometimes received mail destined for Houdini about his tricks. And the car was attributed to an illusionist. There were even trials, but nothing happened.
Despite this, various versions of the "phantom" radio-controlled car appeared later, but with varying success. In 1932, a phantom car driven by engineer J. J. Lynch crashed into a crowd in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and killed 12 people.
Promotional video:
Nebraska test
While radio controlled vehicles themselves ultimately proved to be unjustified, there was no shortage of other ways to move driverless cars along the road. In 1957, an experiment was conducted in the United States near the Nebraska intersection, near Lincoln, Nebraska, in which a Chevrolet participated, driven by wire spools located under the sidewalk. State Highway Engineer Leland Hancock developed the method and recruited electronics manufacturer RCA to assist in his efforts to automate vehicles. During the demo, an RCA representative used coils on the car's bumper to communicate with the guide wire under the road. To prove that the car was guided by coils and radio transmission, the windshield was tinted. Hancock believedthat it would be a viable driverless driving method, but the cost and effort of laying the guide wire proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.
Titanium Firebird
Supposed to be the first car built entirely from titanium, General Motors' Firebird II made a splash in 1956.
The automaker suggested that it could be controlled by an electronic lane located under the road. The steering wheel was not supposed to be, and the vehicles were to be controlled from the towers, like those from which the aircraft flights are controlled. GM set everything up correctly, and voice commands and display of devices. Tests began at a demonstration in Princeton, New Jersey in 1960, but were never released to the public and the technology was never developed. You can watch the excellent promotional video above though.
Aeromobile
In 1961, Popular Science introduced William Bertelsen, a Ph. D. who was involved in engineering and designed the hovercraft. His Aeromobile will glide on "airways" rather than on the highway and reach speeds of up to 120 km / h while the driver reads the newspaper. Bertelsen actually built an Aeromobile, dubbed the Aeromobile 35B, which used downdraft air for propulsion, resulting in improved handling. However, his high-speed utopia of air vehicles never materialized. British engineers were well ahead of the United States in hovercraft, minimizing American interest.
Ghost car
While trying to test tire reliability in 1968, German automaker Continental developed a driverless driving method.
The demonstration, which took place at the Contidrom test site in the Luneburg Heath, was developed by Siemens, Westinghouse and researchers from the universities of Munich and Darmstadt. On the road, when the car deviated, a guide on the road warned the system using sensors and returned the car to its place. The control station gave commands to slow down or accelerate.
The "electronic car" was regularly used on the track and amazed spectators by the fact that they did not see anyone at the wheel. Sheets of glass along the track told engineers how different tire treads reacted to different conditions. The strategy was used until 1974.
Ambulance of the future
In 1989, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University roamed the campus using ALVINN, or autonomous ground-based neural network apparatus. The computer-powered car, a former army ambulance, had a processor the size of a refrigerator and used a 5,000-watt generator. Essentially, a car can move using information stored on its network rather than relying on a predefined grid in its environment. The former army ambulance is believed to be the predecessor to the self-propelled vehicles used today. In 1995, the Pontiac Trans Sport traveled 5,000 km across the country, driven autonomously while a person kept an eye on the brakes and hand throttle.
Car with eyes
In 1994, German engineer Ernst Diekmanns made his dream of a self-driving car come true. He launched two Mercedes 500 SELs on a public road in Paris that were unmanned. The cars had an onboard computer system that controlled wheels, gas and brakes. Dieckmann's work began back in 1986, when he equipped a Mercedes van with a computer and cameras, which allowed him to receive information such as lane markings from the road. The work culminated in a test drive on a regular road. The driver sat behind the wheel for safety net if the systems suddenly fail. Although Dieckmann's work anticipated much of the surveillance elements of modern self-driving cars, his supporters wanted faster results and eventually withdrew funding.
Daniil Albukaev