Mau-tronic! FAW's Chinese robotic car
Now this has disaster spelled all over it. (If you can read Chinese.)
Chinese carmaker First Auto Works (FAW) is demonstrating a sedan that drives itself. Equipped with two cameras hooked up to a computer guidance system of some sort, the FAW Hongqi (Red Flag) HQ3 prototype is designed to navigate its way through streets, avoiding obstacles, stopping at traffic signals and hopefully mowing down a minimum of pedestrians.
FAW demonstrated the car at the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo, where it was limited to a snail-pace 37 mph, though the automaker claims it could safely operate at speeds up to 93 mph. If it actually works in real life, this would mark a significant step forward from the embarrassing demonstration of Mercedes' Brake Assist PLUS system and a challenger to vehicles entering the next DARPA Grand Challenge.
Personally, I'll just be happy if it can get an egg roll and crispy beef to my house while they're still hot.
[Source: Techdirt via Engadget]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rwdmtparkingonly 11:09AM (9/13/2006)
The Chinese claims seem dubious, but I don't want to see anyone claiming that Hongqis can't drive.
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Car chops and Discussion 11:18AM (9/13/2006)
Id like to see a video
anything floating around the web?
http://www.carchops.com
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doug 11:39AM (9/13/2006)
I hear it's programmed to drive directly to Wal-Mart...
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Andy 12:11PM (9/13/2006)
93 mph?! That's a bit high don't you think? Especially with only 2 cameras
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mark f 12:08PM (9/13/2006)
Maybe on the autodrive to WalMart the blog author can pick up the new book "How to Maximize the Use of Subtle Racial Slurs to Foster Steretoyped Images in Newswriting". Eggs roll and crispy beef jokes when referencing Asian technology? Grow up.
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Ryan 12:30PM (9/13/2006)
"4. Maybe on the autodrive to WalMart the blog author can pick up the new book "How to Maximize the Use of Subtle Racial Slurs to Foster Steretoyped Images in Newswriting". Eggs roll and crispy beef jokes when referencing Asian technology? Grow up."
-Where is the insult? Asians/egg rolls are not a sterotype, they are fact?
Now- "Two Wong's don't make a White" is a different story.
You need to chill, your the very reason why people can't stand the "minority"
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kevin 1:20PM (9/13/2006)
weak! can it do slaloms, drive a perfect line through an s curve up to 115mph? VW's GTI can, remember?
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hoy 6:59PM (9/13/2006)
Noah, if you are gonna try to poke fun at this Chinese auto news story...do it right -- It's Mao, not Mau. I agree with #4, poke fun all you want, leave the racial slurs out. Very inappropriate and lame.
btw, this is a pretty old story, Edmunds had it on 9/9.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=116761
what's the matter, the 120/mo post quota is gettin to you already? way to earn that $4.
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Noah Joseph 1:04PM (9/13/2006)
Hoy, of course you're right about the spelling of Mao, and as a poli-sci major I should have known better. (How you can mis-spell a foreign name when writing in English is another story.)
And while I take your comments regarding the Chinese food reference to heart, let me ask you this: If we referenced beer in an article on a German car, or compared a French car to a fine bottle of wine, would you have the same objection?
An immature joke, well I won't refute that. But racist? I think that's pushing it a little. Bottom line: I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone, just trying to spice up the story a bit. (Next time I'll use some spicy chili sauce instead.)
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Dirk Dundenburg 1:19PM (9/13/2006)
It has to drive a damn sight better than the asian drivers it's replacing, at least from the driving habits I see around here.
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Hamud 1:47PM (9/13/2006)
Seeing from crash test on chinese cars, future owners of cars with this kind of technology wont complain that the system didn´t work properly, mainly cause they would be dead after the system malfunction...
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DC 1:53PM (9/13/2006)
Dirk, where do you live? I'll drive rings around your ass any day.
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Ren 1:59PM (9/13/2006)
Noah,
While not racist or a slur, your Chinese food comment reflects a typical Western-centric view. Referencing egg rolls and Mao as soon as you hear Chinese like a word association test shows a complete lack of imagination and/or a narrow view of the world.
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Ryan 2:14PM (9/13/2006)
If you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?
"While not racist or a slur, your Chinese food comment reflects a typical Western-centric view. Referencing egg rolls and Mao as soon as you hear Chinese like a word association test shows a complete lack of imagination and/or a narrow view of the world."
-Narrow view of the world? LOL, try communist China! They have a narrow view of freedom!
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Trough 2:48PM (9/13/2006)
Well, the asian driver cracks were bound to arrive on the subway of wanna-be funny men.
But living in LA, you know what I've noticed? It's not JUST Asians that are bad drivers. I've almost gotten plowed by (probably uninsured) Mexican drivers in downtown LA on Vermont at least 3 times. Come to think of it, white and black people are horrible drivers too in LA. They try to drive agressively but they end up causing near accidents almost everytime. They sure THINK they can drive and THINK they own the road. And don't get me started on the Middle Eastern drivers in LA. They're just clueless.
And Mustang drivers here are just hideous. Even if they're rolling in a bare-bones stock V6, they try to take everyone on - including that CTS-V in the next lane. Idiots.
I think maybe it's just that LA drivers in general can't drive for shit. Sort of like that "Crash" mixed with "Days of Thunder", except everyone just ends up crashing into one another.
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the viking 2:30PM (9/13/2006)
by the way, has any one noticed that the car looks just like a prev generatino lexus GS?
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Ren 3:45PM (9/13/2006)
Ryan, Your statement proves my point. 1. Who said I was Chinese? 2. Not all Chinese people are communists, yet you immediately associate the two. Just like it would be wrong to say that all Americans are war-mongering Muslim-hating cowboys who see the world in two colors - right and wrong.
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Ryan 4:15PM (9/13/2006)
#17
"17. Ryan, Your statement proves my point. 1. Who said I was Chinese? 2. Not all Chinese people are communists, yet you immediately associate the two."
-Okay now your just being plain hypersensative, I NEVER said AS YOU PUT IT "Not all chinese people are communists". I believe I PUT:
"Narrow view of the world? LOL, try communist China! They have a narrow view of freedom!"
I said COMMUNIST CHINA, and I never said you were chinese.
Ren, Where's Stimpy?
"Not all Chinese people are communists, yet you immediately associate the two."
NO WAY, WHO WOULD THINK IT?
CHINA=COMMUNIST
Chinese people that live in the USA:
AMERICAN.
Chinese people make great dish towels and barbie dolls and nike shoes!!!
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Ryan 4:17PM (9/13/2006)
"Chinese people make great dish towels and barbie dolls and nike shoes!!!"
-Oh and self-guided cars as well!
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Fabulo 5:04PM (9/13/2006)
Aaaaahh welcome to the world of overreacting prude pc police people. Next thing you know someone will flash a nipple for 3 seconds during a football game and a generation of children (and their parents) will be scared for life!
I'll have a General Tsao Chicken please.
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