Hands-Free Driving?

Scientists in Germany invented a car that you drive with your eyes

BY: KACIE R.

           

Spirit of Berlin

Raul Rojas, an artificial intelligence researcher in a German university, and a group of other German researchers announced their prototype of a car that you steer with your eyes, on Friday, April 23, 2010, called the eyeDriver. Now, you might be thinking, 'A car that you steer with your eyes? What if you get distracted? Will you just crash?' The answer is no. This car has two settings, one called 'Free Ride', and another called 'Routing'. In the 'free ride' setting, as you move your eyes to the left and right, the steering wheel moves to the left and right; the more you move your eyes, the more the steering wheel moves. However, the eyeDriver does not control the speed, which is set by the driver and stays at a constant speed throughout the ride. If the driver closes their eyes, the car stops. In the second setting, 'routing', the car drives on its own, stopping only when it gets to an intersection or for in the road. When this happens, the car stops and waits for you to look in the direction of the road you want to take for at least three seconds.

            But it's not as though the car is reading your mind; to control the car with your eyes, you must wear a helmet with two cameras, one on top monitoring the outside of the car, and another pointed toward your eyes—but not in the way—monitoring the movement of your pupils. The prototype car, named 'Spirit of Berlin', can travel up to 31 miles per hour.

            "The next step will be to get it to drive 60 miles per hour," said the leader of the group that created the car, Raul Rojas. They are also working on a setting for the iPhone, which allows you to drive your car from the touch of a few buttons. The only question is whether or not the people of Berlin think it's a good idea. I asked students in my school whether or not they thought the eyeDriver was a good idea or not, and all of them said no. Most of their reasons were for safety precautions. One student, Lexie R. said,

            "It's a good idea, but I don't think it will carry through." She also stated that she thought it would be too much of a hassle to get used to the car, not to mention the fact that you will probably need some sort of special license or training to own the eyeDriver.

David Latotzky, one of the researchers
working on the eyeDriver, giving it a
'test run'

          "It doesn't sound like it's ready to be driven in public yet," said another student. Most people agreed that this new technology doesn't seem reliable enough to work one hundred percent of the time, but there may also be some advantages to this car.

            "…After you get used to it, you could be able to multitask while driving, because your hands will be free from the wheel." Will this be the 'next big thing'?

            Lexie R. answered, "… I don't think so, because it seems like there are so many things that can go wrong with it…" There are several variables involved in such a complex car like this, and the public should be focused on world issues right now, like global climate change. Does this car do anything for our environment? Is this just a waste of time and money? Maybe Raul Rojas needs to re-think his approach to hands-free driving.