Automated Co-Pilot for Vehicles Tested in Saline

Technology that could provide drivers with "an intelligent co-pilot," is being tested in Saline, according to MIT News, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When you think of vehicle safety, you think of safety belts and air bags and other tools to reduce the harm done by collisions. More recently, the emphasis has been on collision avoidance. So says Sterling Anderson, a PhD student in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering who has been working with MIT's Robotic Mobility Group on a semi-autonomous driver assistant system.

Or, put plainly, an intelligent co-pilot for your car or truck.

Here's how it was described, by MIT News:

The system uses an onboard camera and laser rangefinder to identify hazards in a vehicle’s environment. The team devised an algorithm to analyze the data and identify safe zones — avoiding, for example, barrels in a field, or other cars on a roadway. The system allows a driver to control the vehicle, only taking the wheel when the driver is about to exit a safe zone. 

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