Stanley's little sister huh?

In the wake of winning the 2005 Grand Challenge, VW is trying to woo us again with Stanley's little sister--Herbie '53 plus 1' fully loaded, but this time without Hollywood.

The basic anatomy on Herbie is quite similar to that of Stanley's--radar and laser sensor (multi-plane scanner) for close range sensing and a satellite navigation system to define the travel route. I wonder if the ERL is playing any part in this project.

Car-to-Car and Car-to-info portal communication have been the recent research interests at VW. However how Herbie would interact with traffic in an urban setting was not mentioned. Will German Engineering in da haus beat DARPA on having unmanned vehicle by 2015 finally? How will the Urban Challenge this year help on the Herbie project? These are the questions waziwazi will like to find out for you.

Oh by the way, the sub-inch gps resolution and the autonomous controller at 150mph are quite impressive. Click here to read more.