Google paves the way for driverless car of tomorrow with "landing strip" patent

Peter Dockrill
16 December 2011, 3:55 PM


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Driverless cars might still seem like pie-in-the-sky sci-fi, but Google's new patent edges the company one step closer in its pursuit of automated vehicles.


It was only a few months ago when Google made the headlines for the wrong reasons when one of its test automated vehicles ended up causing a minor (but still five-car) traffic accident near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California. Following the wry schadenfreude as the story spread across the internet, it soon emerged from Google that the test vehicle in question was actually being manually controlled by a human driver when the accident occurred and was not engaged in its automated state (Californian law stipulates that self-driving vehicles must have a human behind the wheel at all times).


Image: Jalopnik.com

And in an indication that the search giant hasn't been deterred in its pursuit of driverless car technology, Google has been awarded a US patent for a "landing strip" innovation that transitions "a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode."

In essence, when driving your car up to the proposed landing strip indicator (which TechRadar likened to "a massive QR code embedded into a road") and parking in front of it, your vehicle would be able to detect the marking, identify reference data from it (such as discovering the exact location of the spot), wirelessly receive an instruction to switch over to autonomous operation and potentially execute further destination instructions from that point onward.



The benefit of the stationary landing strip lies in the precise location fixing afforded by the marked spot, which will ostensibly instruct the vehicle's computer system with more accurate positioning than what could be determined via GPS.

While it's likely that the landing strip is just another pitstop on the road towards a driverless future, it signals progress is being made in a long-term project which Google states will improve road safety, save people's driving time and help to curb car-based pollution.  

As the company put it on the Google Blog last year: "According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half... While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting."



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John in Brisbane (Regular user):

I have serious concerns about this. Not google's efforts in particular but the move towards part-time autonomous vehicles in general.

A big part of the learning process for young drivers is getting out of the "passenger mentality" they've had all their lives to that point. From that point on, for all of us, when you're in that driver's seat, you are in charge. Anything that causes people to be in the drivers seat of a moving vehicle but not controlling the vehicle will cause serious problems.

In the aviation world, light aircraft have become highly automated and digitized of the last 2 decades. Instruments have gone from clockwork to computers that display a google-earth-like representation of the world below you and warn you of potential problems. Most new aircraft have airbags and many now have whole-plane parachutes. Despite this, the fatality rates have not significantly changed. The accident rates are the same for the highly automated aircraft and ones with the old round dials. The truth seems to be that there is no substitute for developing and maintaining an adequate awareness of the situation you are in. Computers and automation surely have potential in the long term but for now, I think a little automation is a dangerous thing.

17 December 2011, 2:21 PM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

robertporter (New user):

John, you have an excellent point about an automated car significantly changing driver training and driver habits, especially with regard to new young drivers. This is one of the myriad of issues that come along with such a major change. I am interested in identifying, cataloging and tracking potential ways to deal these types of issues. While the cars may be 10 years out, the economic and political framework for them are being developed now. I'm especially interested in insurance matters because the windfall to auto, property and health insurance companies will occur at the same time auto body shops, tow trucks, and others are losing revenue. Simply trusting the market to adjust for the job changes has proven to be a painful approach for individiauls in the agricultural, industrial, and most recently, the telecommunications revolutions.

19 December 2011, 3:11 AM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (Regular user):

Thanks Robert - it always annoys me that we have the capacity to look ahead but always seem to steer the ship by looking over the stern, counting lifeboats! I'm a fan of markets in many respects but I've coined the term "marketism" in recent years to describe that mindset that "the market is always right". I understand the risks in cosseting people too much but managing change in a proactive manner seems like common sense.

19 December 2011, 11:13 AM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (Senior Forumologist):

ok, if this is to replace the driver? i agree, bad idea. BUT the above would be a great suppliment to overcome driver fatigue. Like that thing that they have in some mercs that stops you running in to the back of a car, (not that i've EVER Seen that work properly, BUT you get the idea)

it get deployed in road trains around australia, and no more fatigue related accidents?

every idea has merit. it's comes down to execution and implementation to goveren if the idea's good or not

19 December 2011, 10:55 AM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (Regular user):

I've read that Volvo has rolled out an automatic emergency braking system on one of their 4wd "SUV"s in Europe that senses when people are in imminent danger of running up someone's #$%. Apparently in only 18 months or so the statistics have been super dooper. I've also heard about prototypes of systems to link trucks together in convoys where only the front truckie has to drive and they can take turns being in front. Guess all this kind of stuff is on the way.

19 December 2011, 11:18 AM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (Senior Forumologist):

that's been round for a while... hell, i was watching 5th gear yesterday, and it's standard feature in the new 7000 quid Seat.

what i mean is, cabin detects your asleep, and keeps you on the road and on track, without stopping the car. Would be a great idea.

remember i was talking about prime movers, and someone driving from the east to west coast of aus, in 1 trip, and being able to sleep during the run without stopping. would save drivers taking no-doz, and other upers to keep them awake.

That would be my practical application. i wouldn't deploy this into typical cars... BUT for these things to work, they need markers to on the road. This would require some sort of council approval, no mater how great the idea is, and GPS is not acurate enough yet...

What about a ultra short range wireless ID point, using Bluetooth or a Zigbee device, to tell the computer were it is in space more acurately then GPS and less abtrosively than a "landing strip" on the road.

you'd build them into the reflectors on the side of the road, set the "reflector" part as a solar panels, and a couple of cap's for power storage, (zigbee wifi uses very little power, and has greater then blutooth range)

gee... may i should apply for a patent, then sell it to Apple :)

19 December 2011, 2:17 PM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

John in Brisbane (Regular user):

I'll start a bidding war so HP can jump in at the last minute and pay twice what it's worth!

There is some system to monitor brainwave activity of drivers developed here in oz I think.

Hey some RFID tag systems don't need power - the scanner RF emissions drive a little induction coil in the tag so they can transmit their signal.

I'm totally with you on the embedded tags - I've thought that before too. Safety would be the primary focus but what about using them with the soon to be standard in-car screens (and augmented reality aps for your phone) to totally get rid of those ugly signs and their potentially dangerous poles all around our cities.

BTW there is already super accurate GPS. Google WAAS and GBAS ... I think Sydney airport might have a GBAS to assist GPS-based precision approaches. I'd trust embedded markers more though...

21 December 2011, 10:33 PM (5 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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