It's not flying cars, but it's close

Science Daily - August 27, 2009

European researchers have developed new control systems that let driverless vehicles communicate and cooperate with each other. Could fleets of high throughput rapid transit systems soon be cruising our cities?

Many metro and tram systems effectively run automatically nowadays. Still, it is reassuring to see the driver in the cab, knowing someone is there to take over in an emergency or to override the computer's controls if necessary. But European researchers in the CyberCars2 project (http://www-c.inria.fr/cybercars2) have now demonstrated that vehicles can be left to themselves much more. If allowed to 'talk' to each other, automated vehicles can organise themselves well enough to get around efficiently and safely.

Two earlier EU-funded projects, CyberCars and CyberMove, developed the sense and control systems by which unmanned road-based vehicles, called cybercars, could safely navigate the streets.

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