A first: Italy to China … the green and driverless way

If it’s a sign of the times that electric- and solar-powered car races don’t seem that strange anymore, we might be catching a glimpse of the future in a different sort of journey that sets off today: an electric-powered expedition of autonomous vehicles heading from Italy to China.

The VisLab Intercontintental Autonomous Challenge set off from Parma, Italy, today with the goal of safely — and greenly — traveling the 13,000 kilometres to Shanghai over the next three months. The convoy consists of four autonomous (ie, no human driver) vehicles followed by four RVs and four support trucks. En route to Shanghai for the 2010 World Expo, the expedition will stop for public demonstrations at various locations, with the first one set to be held in Belgrade.

The vehicles will actually be unmanned only during the demonstrations. En route, they will carry passengers who, while they won’t act as drivers, can intervene to control the vehicles if safety issues arise.

“No one has ever tried anything like this,” explains VisLab’s FAQ. “It’s the first time in history that vehicles with no driver and without using oil-based propulsion travel on an intercontinental route. If everything will go as planned, this will be a huge milestone in the history of mobility and robotics.”

The expedition is aimed at building on the knowledge gained from earlier tests of autonomous vehicles in places like the Mojave Desert. This time, however, the route will be even more challenging, taking the vehicles through extreme weather conditions and terrains in places where there are often no maps available for guidance.

The key to navigating such a course will be an operator-controlled leader vehicle that operates autonomously most of the time but is manned so a human can take control when road conditions require a decision to be made. The lead vehicle’s position is then broadcast via GPS to the follower vehicle, which responds accordingly and automatically.

Each autonomous vehicle is equipped with a solar panel to keep the autonomous driving system charged. The vehicles themselves are also electric, but will be recharged by generators in some locations along the way where electric outlets aren’t available.