Autopilot for Highways for $ 10,000

Not only is Google developing autonomous cars. California startup Cruise Automation said it was ready to release a car upgrade kit much cheaper than Google’s: only $ 10,000. True, the possibilities of such an autopilot are somewhat limited: the RP-1 product is positioned as an “autopilot for highways”.

Since yesterday, the company began accepting pre-orders for 50 sets of RP-1, promising to start installing them in 2015. True, there is one subtlety: the RP-1 so far works only on Audi A4 and S4 (from 2012).

The description says that the driver should take the car to the track, choose a lane, and then press a button, and the car will continue on its own. The RP-1 controls the throttle and brake pedals and the steering wheel.
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There is another nuance here: the autopilot only works on a familiar road, where he used to drive at least once in “manual” mode. Developers plan in the future to add the ability to exchange road maps between cars. By the way, Google's car robots are also able to drive only on familiar roads.

The driver has several options for how to return control: for example, press the gas pedal or take the wheel.

Now the RP-1 is being tested on California roads (namely, on Highways 101 and 280). The developers say that it requires another 6-9 months of testing before the start of sales. In the future, the list of compatible cars will expand. Ideally, RP-1 can be installed on any machine.

The RP-1 example is surprising for several reasons. First, it was developed in record time: a startup was formed only in November 2013. Secondly, he has already started sales, although testing has not been completed. And, in the end, a fairly low cost: for comparison, the equipment of unmanned Google vehicles costs about $ 100,000, that is, an order of magnitude more expensive.

The main element of the design RP-1 - a set of sensors that are mounted on the roof of the car. There is a camera, GPS receiver and other tools. The instrument was developed by a group of engineers, mostly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.



The computer is located in the trunk.



RP-1 does not work in the rain, in the fog, in the dark.