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Inwards the self-driving car of the future – CBS News

Inwards the self-driving car of the future

Mercedes-Benz engineer Alex Hilliger von Thile gives sixty Minutes a close-up look at the far-out features of the Mercedes F015 concept car

  • 2015 Dec 06
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For many people, the idea of a self-driving car is, well, a little disconcerting. But top automakers say driverless cars powered by a form of artificial intelligence could one day be safer than our human-driven ones — and a lot more joy.

On sixty Minutes this week, Bill Whitaker visits Silicon Valley to take a spin in some of the autonomous cars automakers are racing to engineer. One of them is the sleek-looking Mercedes F015, a prototype built to demonstrate what is possible when the car takes care of the driving. For now, it is only capable of navigating a preprogrammed course, but in the clip above, Whitaker gets a feel for what it might one day be like to drive.

For starters, any passenger can control the car from any seat, two of which can face forward or backward. The no-button dashboard pops up with the swipe of a arm and responds to both eye movements and forearm gestures. “What we are doing is natural interaction,” explains Mercedes-Benz engineer Alex Hilliger von Thile, as he adjusts the volume of the car’s music without touching a knob.

As it drives, the car uses cameras and radar sensors to detect everything around it, such as houses, trees and other cars, displaying them as blue dots on the dashboard screen. The driver can zoom in on the dots, exposing traffic on a nearby bridge, for example, or another vehicle that’s getting too close.

The car also notifies its driver of points of interest along the way. “When you’re not truly tasked with driving anymore and route planning, a navigation system would be entirely different,” Von Thile says. “Rather than having to concentrate on turn-by-turn maneuvers, the car can actually highlight what’s truly nice along the route.” If you want to stop for a coffee, he adds, simply raise a palm and the car will pull itself over at your preferred café.

But Von Thile’s dearest feature is the car’s capability to choose music from your playlist based on traffic. When you’re stuck in gridlock, he says, it picks a calming song, and then shifts to something more “vibrant” and “upbeat” when the road is clear.

A car that drives itself will take some getting used to, of course. Whitaker admits he’s more convenient facing forward than sitting with his back to the windshield and his gams outstretched. But one day, Von Thile says, we may all learn to relieve and let our cars do the driving instead.

Editor’s Note: This sixty Minutes Overtime movie was originally published on October Four, 2015.

Inwards the self-driving car of the future – CBS News

Inwards the self-driving car of the future

For many people, the idea of a self-driving car is, well, a little disconcerting. But top automakers say driverless cars powered by a form of artificial intelligence could one day be safer than our human-driven ones — and a lot more joy.

On sixty Minutes this week, Bill Whitaker visits Silicon Valley to take a spin in some of the autonomous cars automakers are racing to engineer. One of them is the sleek-looking Mercedes F015, a prototype built to demonstrate what is possible when the car takes care of the driving. For now, it is only capable of navigating a preprogrammed course, but in the clip above, Whitaker gets a feel for what it might one day be like to drive.

For starters, any passenger can control the car from any seat, two of which can face forward or backward. The no-button dashboard pops up with the swipe of a forearm and responds to both eye movements and forearm gestures. “What we are doing is natural interaction,” explains Mercedes-Benz engineer Alex Hilliger von Thile, as he adjusts the volume of the car’s music without touching a knob.

As it drives, the car uses cameras and radar sensors to detect everything around it, such as houses, trees and other cars, displaying them as blue dots on the dashboard screen. The driver can zoom in on the dots, exposing traffic on a nearby bridge, for example, or another vehicle that’s getting too close.

The car also notifies its driver of points of interest along the way. “When you’re not indeed tasked with driving anymore and route planning, a navigation system would be fully different,” Von Thile says. “Rather than having to concentrate on turn-by-turn maneuvers, the car can actually highlight what’s indeed nice along the route.” If you want to stop for a coffee, he adds, simply raise a forearm and the car will pull itself over at your preferred café.

But Von Thile’s beloved feature is the car’s capability to choose music from your playlist based on traffic. When you’re stuck in gridlock, he says, it picks a calming song, and then shifts to something more “vibrant” and “upbeat” when the road is clear.

A car that drives itself will take some getting used to, of course. Whitaker admits he’s more comfy facing forward than sitting with his back to the windshield and his gams outstretched. But one day, Von Thile says, we may all learn to relieve and let our cars do the driving instead.

Editor’s Note: This sixty Minutes Overtime movie was originally published on October Four, 2015.

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