Briefly mentioned this in the Samsung Members App Benefits thread we have about the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019, but figured it was cool enough to give it a topic of its own.
Drift Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. making history by remotely drifting the first-of-its-kind VR car using a combo of a Galaxy S10 5G, in partnership with the Designated Driver system, a Samsung VR headset, and connected using Vodafone 5G:
Pretty much a grown-up and advanced version of a radio-controlled toy car.
The Technology
A little bit on the tech used for this.
The car: Modified Lincoln MKZ.
Advanced smartphone: A set of roof-mounted Galaxy S10 5G's, using the very latest in smartphone processors, software, cameras and 3D ToF depth camera to act as the vehicle "eyes" and signal relay.
Superfast 5G network: Provided by Vodafone. Superfast speed/low latency of the wider bandwidth signal means a quick response time between the remote driver and the car.
Teleoperation system: Provided by Designated Driver. Easy to use, intuitive remote user interface, along with the software and hardware kit needed to control the car. Usually the Designated Driver system would involve the remote driver sitting in front of a bank of several screens, but on this occasion, instead they went for:
VR: Samsung VR headset. An immersive VR simulation of the car's environment for the remote driver.
('Cos, why not?)
My Thoughts
Excited... and a little apprehensive about driverless cars.
Excited because I've loved cars (and pretty much all things automotive) since I was a kid. 'Car designer' was one of the things I really wanted to be when I grew up. Ironically, though, I was always too afraid of actually learning to drive. (I have all the hand-eye co-ordination of someone wearing woolly mittens; and an unfortunate scary technical issue with a go-kart in my formative years didn't help either). And I grew up with things like Knightrider and Transformers. Cars that can drive themselves in partnership with a human - either using AI or remotely - have always been something I could only wish for.
But also a little apprehensive now that I'm older and that it's a reality, as my overactive imagination can picture all the things that could go wrong with this tech - and the consequences of it.
And it raises a question of how much of the driving experience is lost by not being actually present in the cockpit.
As such, I wonder how much a driverless concept will be adopted in the general consumer market, or if it'll be more of a commercial vehicle thing. (I.e. if it'll be less KITT, and more Johnny Cab.)
What do you think?
Interested in hearing other people's thoughts on driverless cars, the tech behind it all, and what (if any) lasting changes you reckon this concept will bring to the automotive world now that it's a more-or-less affordable reality.
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