A $10,000 “kit” is available that can turn your car into a near self-driving car. But it’s only for Audi and sold only in California, and it only works in the San Francisco area initially.
But it’s the beginning of a trend to watch.
The kit, called the RP-1 is from Cruise, a start-up with 8 employees. The kit includes sensors that mount on top of the car and actuators that control the steering, brakes and accelerator plus a computer brain that mounts in the trunk.
Once installed, you can “sit back and enjoy the ride,” says the company, although to remain legal, you must keep an eye on the road (but you don’t have to hold the steering wheel).
The system uses 2 “inexpensive” cameras and radar, plus GPS and other sensors. There’s a sensor pod on the roof.
CEO Kyle Vogt told re/code “From a software standpoint, this is a pretty mature field. People have been trying to teach cars how to drive for 30 years now. We’re just taking the best of that and putting it in a consumer product.”
He adds that instead of fuming at the car in front of you in traffic, this lets you relax a bit.
The Cruise RP-1 works “seamlessly” with the Audi 2012 A4 and S4. It is limited to the San Francisco area (highways only, we believe) because the company has mapped that area, so the car can stay in a lane, accelerate and brake with the traffic flow and follow the curves in the road.
You can pre-order one of 50 devices that will be produced initially but installations don’t start until 2015.
Market leader Google says it will offer mass market autonomous cars between 2017 and 2020.
Watch a video here.
