Editor’s Report

Although It may sound improbable, a company has come up with an add-on kit that enables a car to operate autonomously. Could this be a watershed moment for the technology?

There's little argument that the introduction of autonomously operated passenger vehicles on our roads would represent a quantum change in personal transportation and the various industries-including ours-that support it. There's also lots of evidence that a number of automakers are busy pursuing the technology; General Motors, Audi and Volvo are just a few that have announced plans to introduce various levels of self-driving functionality in their vehicles within the next five years, give or take. And a report from IHS Automotive predicts that by 2050, "nearly all of the vehicles in use are likely to be self-driving cars or self-driving commercial vehicles."

Regardless what the timetable eventually turns out to be, one thing for certain is that all vehicles coming off the assembly line that were designed to be driven the oldfashioned way will eventually go to their grave that way. Or will they?

Cruise Automation, Inc. (www.get cruise.com), a San Francisco-based company, recently announced that it has the technology-and the legal approvals-to take a stock factory car and make it autonomous for $10,000. The compaany is currently accepting 50 preorders for its Cruise RP-1, an aftermarket highway autopilot system available for installation on any 2012 or newer Audi A4 or S4 and authorized for use only on California highways.

The system includes a sensor pod, a trunkmounted computer and a one-button control pad mounted within easy reach of the driver. The company assures potential customers that system redundancies and monitoring capabilities will ensure safe operation.

With such limitations on the vehicles and roads they can be driven on, it may be tempting to shrug this off as just another oddball idea from Silicon Valley. But this is not a simple audio-system or performance add-on; it's the aftermarket addition of a system designed to take control of a vehicle.

There are a lot of "ifs," but if this works as promised, if it spreads to more vehicles and more roads and if the price of the technology comes down, it could be the start of something very significant for the automobile industry.

Editor's Note: The Insurance Information Institute recently posted an informative report outlining the current state of autonomous vehicles, which can be read at http://bit.ly /in autonomous.

John Lypen

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