The car is stupid
07/20/2016
It was exactly 30 years ago that ADAC Motorwelt published a report on the car of the future. As part of the report, the editors also spoke to Dr. Klaus Haefner, Professor of Applied Computer Science at the University of Bremen, who was 50 years old at the time. And he dared to make a rather bold prediction, which we would like to share with our readers:
"Professor Klaus Haefner thinks of more safety when he thinks of the keyword Auto 2000: the many deaths and injuries are too high a price for mobility for him. His thesis is that today's cars are stupid and that human drivers are unreliable. They must be replaced by a computer .
Haefner: "Airplanes take off and land automatically, ships travel long distances on autopilot, missiles are automatically guided to their targets. You also have to turn the car into a real auto-mobile .
According to Haefner, it looks like this: The driver inserts an electronic card as a key and engages in an optical or acoustic dialog with his car: Who is driving - driver or autopilot? If autopilot: Where is the destination? Place, street, house number? The driver can then relax in his swivel chair. The car-mobile finds its own way. How does it do it ?
A computer evaluates a digitally stored road map. Satellite navigation and tracking of vehicle movements on the map allow the current location to be constantly determined. Three television cameras record the traffic situation, read signs and traffic signs and prevent collisions. There are ultrasonic sensors for the close range .
The "gondola lift without rails" has only advantages for Haefner: it adheres strictly to traffic regulations, does not drink alcohol and has no startle seconds.
The additional price today would be around DM 12,500. The professor is thinking of 3,000 to 5,000: "Information technology is getting cheaper from year to year. Haefner: "The car-mobile would be a huge opportunity for German industry. If we only think about the fun of driving and do nothing, the Japanese and Americans will overtake us technically."
It is astonishing how close Haefner is to the self-driving car that is now being announced for the next few years, or is already driving around on some of our roads as the Tesla Model S or cars from other manufacturers.
As is so often the case, Haefner was of course clearly too optimistic with regard to the timeline, because in the year 2000, this vision was of course still decades away.
