We drive our cars to school, to work, to the mall, to the park, and eventually back home. Sometimes we enjoy it, sometimes we hate it, and very often we just do it. WouldnÕt it be nice if our car drove us there while we do something else like surfing the web, watching a movie, reading a book, or just taking some rest? And all this with the convenience of individual mobility as our car gets us directly from our home to our destination - whenever and wherever we want? This is the idea of autonomous driving. It has been demonstrated in several cases (Prometheus, PATH, DARPA Grand and Urban ChallengesÉ) and seems to be ready for closed course deployment. However, deploying the same technology in public traffic is much more difficult. The reality is, autonomous driving is not available in public today and might not become available in the near future. There are many challenges to be solved in all kinds of disciplines (engineering, business, legalÉ). That is why the road towards autonomous driving might not be just a one-time step but a rather lengthy transition. Therefore, autonomous driving could be at first limited to certain situations, certain roads, certain groups etc. But eventually it will happen, so the question to be asked to engineers, business and legal experts, and certainly consumers is: What would it take for you to hand over control to an autonomous vehicle? This is also the lead question for ME 302 this spring, as we want students to come up with a scenario for the first autonomous vehicle in public. Together, we want to explore the future of individual mobility. Course Information Course: ME302 - The Future of the Automobile Term: Spring 2009 Instructor: Sven Beiker, Terman 548, beiker@stanford.edu, 736-1504 Time: F 3:15-4:30 Location: Terman 556 References: tbd Level: Advanced undergrads or beginning grads Grading: Credit / No Credit, based on attendance and results of group work Prerequisites: Students should have a basic background in engineering, social sciences, business, or law. This background should provide the students with the ability to discuss automotive topics and put them in an interdisciplinary context. It is essential to understand that an automobile, beyond technology, influences and is being influenced by a variety of culture, society, legal, and business aspects. Objectives: The goal of the course is to: (1) Develop an understanding for the interactions of technology, business, and society with a specific automotive focus (2) Assess technology in a much larger context than someoneÕs primary educational background (3) Combine input from a variety of disciplines to develop a realistic deployment scenario for future technologies Course Setup: The course consist of lectures that take place every few weeks and seminar style sessions in between. In the lectures, researchers from academia and industry share their view of autonomous driving. In the seminars, the students understand, discuss, and brainstorm key aspects of the topic. Throughout the course, the students work in project groups to develop and prove their scenarios. At the end of the course, the results are presented in an expo setting as poster presentations explaining the scenario and discussing the different aspects in the fields of engineering, business, legal.... |
