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TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Driverless taxi on Seoul campus offers glimpse of future
YOUKYUNG LEE that scan road conditions. A researcher from the Intelligent Vehicle IT Research Center at Seoul National University shows the
AP Technology Writer Seo’s team outfitted the smartphone application for the driverless car called Snuber with a fixture on its roof with devices
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Genesis sedan with a cam- that scan road conditions at Seoul National University’s campus in Seoul, South Korea. The South
A South Korean university era, laser scanners and Korean university is testing the sedan that can pick up and transport passengers without a human
is testing a sedan that can other sensors. For now, due driver, giving a glimpse into the future of autonomous public transport.
pick up and transport pas- to regulations banning au-
sengers without a human tonomous vehicles on the (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
driver, giving a glimpse into roads, a driver is behind the
the future of autonomous steering wheel and can ly controlled campus envi- He said in early 2020, a 2030, he said.
public transport. override the automation in ronment. driverless car will be run- Experts said such servic-
Seo Seung-Woo, director emergency situations. The “It will take a huge amount ning between tollgates on es have the potential to
of the Intelligent Vehicle IT car cannot travel faster of time and effort,” said highways. A door-to-door change delivery business-
Research Center at Seoul than 30 kilometers per hour Seo. “We need more tests pickup service using a self- es, not only mass transport.
National University, said (18.6 miles per hour) be- in real traffic conditions.” driving car is likely in early q
the university has been cause of the speed limit on
testing the driverless taxi to campus. There are no full
transport disabled students traffic lights but researchers
around campus. have programmed Snuber
The vehicle, called Snuber, to navigate around other
has been navigating the challenges.
4,109 square meter (44,200 The vehicle applies a
square foot) campus for brake pedal at a red stop
the past six months without sign and at a pedestrian
any accidents. It works in crosswalk. When another
conjunction with a hailing vehicle stops in the middle
app created by the uni- of the road, the automat-
versity. Companies around ed sedan will scan the oth-
the world are betting that er lanes to detect vehicles
automated driving tech- traveling from the opposite
nology will transform public direction. If there are no
transportation. other vehicles, the Snuber
In Japan, a company moves into the oncoming
called Robot Taxi Inc. plans lane to pass the vehicle.
to offer a full commercial However, it is not yet ready
service in 2020. In Greece, for use outside the relative-
driverless buses called City-
Mobil2 have been tested in Feds:
real traffic. General Motors
Co. said Monday it is in- Non-Jeep car radios aren’t vulnerable to hacking
vesting $500 million in ride-
hailing company Lyft Inc. TOM KRISHER hackers to remotely take But the fear of widespread identified by FCA,” NHTSA
and forming a partnership AP Auto Writer over a Jeep Cherokee. said in the documents.
that could eventually lead DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety The hack by security ex- vulnerability to hackers ap- In addition, the agency
to on-demand, self-driving regulators have deter- perts Charlie Miller and said Sprint, Fiat Chrysler’s
cars. South Korean com- mined that only Fiat Chrys- Chris Valasek touched off pears to be unfounded. wireless provider, blocked
panies, however, have ler radios have a security the investigation in July and access to a radio commu-
been slow to embrace the flaw that allowed friendly raised fears that millions of NHTSA investigators said nications port that was un-
self-driving technology. hackers to take control of a cars and trucks could be intentionally left open. q
The country’s largest car- Jeep last year. vulnerable. in documents that similar
maker, Hyundai Motor Co., The National Highway Traf- They were able to change
said it expects to roll out fic Safety Administration the Cherokee’s speed radios made by Harman
a fully automated car in said in documents posted and control the brakes, ra-
2030. Only this month, Sam- online this weekend that it’s dio, windshield wipers and International went to Volk-
sung Electronics created a ending a five-month inves- transmission through the
team to focus on autono- tigation into the vulnerabili- Uconnect infotainment sys- swagen, Audi and Bent-
mous driving. ties of automotive radios. tem.
On the campus of Seoul The agency also said last The hackers informed Fiat ley, but that those vehicles
National University, many summer’s recall of 1.4 mil- Chrysler of their findings
heads turn as the grey lion Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and detailed them at a cy- have safety systems that
sedan passes. It has tur- and Ram vehicles closed ber conference, triggering
ret on its roof with devices the opening that allowed the investigation. would stop hackers.
“Based on a thorough re-
view of technical informa-
tion supplied during the
course of this investigation,
there does not appear to
be a reason to suspect that
the infotainment head units
Harman supplied to other
vehicle manufacturers
contain the vulnerabilities
