Caravan of electric robots-cars moves from Italy to China

I’m not tired of repeating that the present sometimes surprises more than any science fiction work. Indeed, for several decades now, futurists have promised us automatic transportation that will control itself without the need for a driver. So, it seems that the future has already come at least partially. The Italian company Vislab has learned to make such automatic robots-cars, which, moreover, do not use gasoline and other petroleum products. Now, in order to show amazing cars around the world, Vislab launch a caravan of these cars from Italy to China (it is 12,874 kilometers).

The company works at the University of Parma, working to successfully conduct this tour. The caravan will pass about 100 kilometers per day at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour.
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It’s not entirely clear how the car batteries will be charged, being stored with energy for the car engines. The fact is that there is a large solar battery on the roof, but, apparently, it will only provide electronics inside the car (laser scanners, cameras, GPS). But the batteries, it seems, will be charged from the usual power supply at night. Thus, cars will move in the afternoon, and at night the stock of energy will be replenished.



I will also note that the main car in the column of “robots” will be driven by humans, and the rest, like ants, will follow each other, without the participation of people. Cars will be oriented due to installed laser sensors and radio transmitters. In the backseat of each car will be cooled down by a couple of people with beer and guitars , who will take over control if something goes wrong. But the developers still hope to go all the way to the end on autopilot.

The success (or failure) of the team can be monitored on the site . Well, we wish the guys and their cars success - because such enthusiasts and accelerate progress, right? By the way, “follow the progress” is not just an expression; on this site you can track the progress in real time, thanks to the webcams installed on the cars.