Students at Santa Clara University who don’t feel like hoofing it all around the 106 acre campus will now be able to use driverless shuttles to get around.
The shuttles — golf carts that have been modified to include laser scanners, radar, cameras and GPS — are not designed to get students from one side of the 106-acre campus to the other. That doesn’t mean students won’t be involved in the project, however.
As a SCU School of Engineering industry partner for the fall quarter, Auro will lead technical seminars, conduct corporate tours of their headquarters and lead a student design competition, according to according to Dr. Christopher Kitts, director of the Robotic Systems Laboratory at SCU.
Kitts says that between 30 and 50 students usually participate in the competitions where students have an opportunity to win a prize of usually a few thousand dollars by “brainstorm[ing] a concept for the industry partner.”
Here’s a good brainstorming idea — driverless cars available after parties. Kind of like a drunk Uber but without the small talk or anger when you vomit in the backseat.
Anyone out there go to Santa Clara? We want to hear about the driverless car experiment.
[via USA Today College]