Was Google′s driverless bus refused, formally-no cars on the road today, autopilot, WEpods-IT information

Remember a month ago, it 8km/h 200 m unmanned bus? Today, the company announced that WEpods has entered the pilot phase, and put into use in May of this year. By then, it will be universities, playgrounds, short-distance public transport between the airport, complete with carrying 6 passengers at these locations at a time the task of shuttling back and forth in.

According to Curbed reports, running WEpods with similar to shuttle bus in London′s Heathrow Airport, are mainly used for short distance transportation within large facilities. WEpods biggest characteristic is the guide the driver through laser sensors, in addition to the operating convenience than other driverless cars, it is not restricted to a fixed orbit. More free to move at the same time, can also reduce the cost of transport system.

Prior to this announcement, WEpods already after two months of trial operation on the road.

Of course, this includes a month ago "8km/h forward at a speed of 200-meter" test. The project director Jan Willem van der Wiel later explained:

"The top speed of 40km/h and WEpods to 14 hours of battery life time, the operation speed is greater than 8km/h, to complete the distance greater than 200 meters. On that occasion, but is deliberately slow to publicly test its security. ”

WEpods the project investment amount and time are not large. Data released from Curbed, WEpods, testing, approval and road test only spent less than two years, and its total investment is only 3.4 million euros. From the development of costs and benefits, said this was an absolute bargain items.

However, this does not mean that their development process is easy.

Zhiqian, WEpods development team would like to use the Google driverless technology, but this was rejected by the Google. Therefore, they are in the Netherlands under the impetus of Government, this project was completed in cooperation with the University, the robot manufacturer.

Google driverless technology not because of the blessing that they developed their own laser sensors to guide driverless system.

The system also enables the drone, but can only handle a few simple conditions. Plus constraints such as maximum speed, battery life, which will limit WEpods to a large facility on the flow of transport, and not even Intercity traffic use on traffic in the city.

In addition, the team will also meet like avoidance system and navigation systems, traffic signal recognition system development system and other issues. Team is how to solve this problem within a relatively short period of time, its Director Alwin Bakker says:

"We progressed so rapidly because fewer participants. So when a problem is encountered, the entire team will be able to make quick decisions and to continue to move forward. ”

When talking about the development of the project, Alwin Bakker in the access supplementary:

"The Netherlands Government will put this technology into an open source project, there will be an increasing number of cities and companies join in, forming a perfect unmanned transit system. ”

Company in charge of operations, WEpods driverless transit system will be listed in May of this year.

By then, users can use the exclusive application of the iOS to call vehicles. However, the WEpods speed will be limited and a top speed of only 25km/h.

曾被谷歌拒绝的无人驾驶公交，今天正式上路 - 无人汽车,自动驾驶,WEpods - IT资讯

还记得一个月前，那台用8km/h走了200米的无人驾驶公交车吗？今天，该公司宣布这台WEpods已经进入试运营阶段，并且在今年5月正式投入使用。届时，它会作为大学、游乐场、机场之间的短途公交，完成着每次运送6名乘客在这些地点中来回穿梭的任务。

根据 Curbed的报道，投入运营的WEpods跟伦敦希斯罗机场中的穿梭车类似，主要应付大型设施内的短距离运输任务。WEpods最大的特点是通过激光传感器来引导驾驶，除了操作会比其他的无人驾驶汽车方便之外，它还不会受到固定轨道的限制。移动起来更随意的同时，也能够降低交通系统搭建的成本。

在这项消息公布之前，WEpods已经经过两个月的上路试运营。

当然，这样包括一个月前“用8km/h的速度前行的200米”的测试。该项目的负责人Jan Willem van der Wiel后来解释：

“WEpods的最高时速为40km/h以及有14个小时的续航时间，平时的运行时速是也会大于8km/h，能够完成的最长距离也大于200米。那次，只不过是故意降低速度来公开测试其安全性而已。”

WEpods这个项目投资金额和时间投入都不算大。从Curbed公布的数据得知，WEpods设计、实验、审批和路试成功仅花费了不到两年时间，而且其总投入仅为340万欧元。从开发成本和效益上说，这还是一项绝对划算的项目。

但是，这不代表他们的开发过程就是一帆风顺的。

之前，WEpods开发团队就想采用Google的无人驾驶技术，但这遭到了Google拒绝。因此，他们就在荷兰政府的策动下，与大学、机器人制造商合作完成了这个项目。

由于没有Google无人驾驶技术的加持，他们便开发出一套自用的激光传感器引导无人驾驶系统。

这套系统同样能够实现无人驾驶，但是只能应付一些简单的路况。加上在最高时速、续航时间等因素限制，这些就将WEpods限制在大型设施的人流运送上，而未能在城市内交通甚至是城际交通上使用。

除此之外，该团队还会遇到像避障系统开发、交通灯信号识别系统开发以及导航系统系统构建等问题。团队是如何在这较短的时间内解决这项问题，他们的负责人Alwin Bakker就表示：

“我们进展如此迅速就是因为参与人员少。这样在遇到问题时，整个团队就能快速作出决定并继续向前推进。”

谈到该项目的后续发展时，Alwin Bakker在访问中补充：

“荷兰政府将把该技术打造成开源项目，未来会有越来越多的城市和公司加入进来，形成一个完善的无人驾驶公交系统。”

负责运营的公司表示，WEpods无人驾驶公交系统将会在今年5月正式上市。

届时，用户可以用iOS上的专属应用来呼叫车辆。不过，WEpods的速度也会有所限制，最高时速只能达到25km/h。