Another milestone has been reached for self-driving cars; 3,400 of them to be exact.
The Roadrunner, an autonomous vehicle created by English auto technology company Delphi, completed a nine-day, 3,400-mile journey across the United States from San Francisco to New York City.
The journey, which began March 22 and ended March 31, was completed by a team of engineers who made the trip in a modified Audi.
According to Dephi, the vehicle was “well-equipped with six long-range radars, four short-range radars, three vision-based cameras, six lidars, a localization system, intelligent software algorithms and a full suite of Advanced Drive Assistance Systems.”
The engineers only took over control of the vehicles when it left the interstate, meaning 99% of the journey was autonomous.
This comes after Delphi tested the vehicle’s self-driving capabilities in January, traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to premier the vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Delphi’s CTO Jeff Owens said now is the time to put the vehicle to the ultimate test. “This drive will help us collect invaluable data in our quest to deliver the best automotive-grade technologies on the market,” he said.
According to a press release from Delphi, “The team collected nearly three terabytes of data – about 30% of all of the printed material in the Library of Congress.”
The trip crossed 15 states and Washington, D.C. The vehicle encountered traffic circles, construction zones, bridges, tunnels, aggressive drivers and all sorts of different weather conditions.
Many of the technologies in the Roadrunner are already on the market today, including collision mitigation, integrated radar and camera systems, and forward collision and lane departure warning.
