When Stanley—a computer-operated Volkswagen Touareg SUV outfitted by researchers at Stanford University—won the Defense Department’s Grand Challenge last year (The Chronicle, November 18, 2005), Pentagon officials triumphantly announced that “automated driving is something that can be done.”
But it might be a while before anyone actually does it, said Sebastian Thrun, the leader of the Stanford squad, in an interview with CNET News.
Mr. Thrun, an associate professor of computer science and of electrical engineering, told CNET that the technology powering Stanley will make its way into commercial vehicles, but it will do so gradually and incrementally. “I don’t think that the technology I have worked on for self-driving cars has a market right now,” he said. But he added that, as more cars start offering active cruise control and parking-assistance systems, “at some point we all realize that we have a self-driving car.” —Brock Read
