Self-Driving Golf Carts

If you ever dared to dream of a self-driving golf cart, then your dreams are coming true. The innovative way to get around is becoming a reality even faster than you hoped.

Earlier this year, Velodyne LiDAR Inc. and SMART, (the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology) announced their intention to launch “fully autonomous golf carts.”The technology company is making the idea come to life through real-time light detection and ranging sensors. The carts have been working and under testing for about a year now.

As a test drive, the first working carts shuttled 500 tourists around a Singapore garden, while navigating paths, people, and wildlife. The experiments took place over the course of six days, and the scientists and tech experts also tried out an online booking system that enabled visitors to schedule pickups and drop-offs at any of ten stations located around the garden. They served to route and redeploy the carts to accommodate all the requests

When surveyed, an impressive 98% of the passengers said they would ride in the self-driving carts again, and 95% said that they would be more likely to visit the gardens again if the golf carts were a permanent fixture. Would you want to give it a try?

BackgroundCompanies have been experimenting with autonomous cars since the 1920s. Self-driving vehicles have been a staple of science fiction stories for almost a century.

Only recently, however, with the advances in computers and sensor technology have self-driving vehicles become feasible.

The technology seems to have advanced rapidly, and now even golf cart manufacturers are entering this new market.

How It Works

The carts can reach up to 15 miles per hour, and depend on a cylinder surrounding the driving trajectory called the “dynamic virtual bumper”—instead of a GPS. The cylinder’s width and length are able to adapt in response to the cart’s speed. When an obstacle appears in front of the cylinder, the cart’s onboard computer changes the cylinder by changing the course, speed, or both to avoid the obstacle.

The revolutionary concept was engineered to make transportation easy for everyone, old or young, able-bodied or not. When in need of a ride, you can book a vehicle by way of computer or smartphone, and it will come to you.

Developing self-driving golf carts likely will aid in the development of self-driving cars. The golf carts are being viewed as a pre-emptive step to the autonomous car!

Why It Works

What makes the SMART program’s autonomous vehicles stand out from other attempts is the minimalist approach. The vehicles are not as heavily instrumented as competitors from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or the Google car. Competitors are striving to make cars as we know them drive themselves, but that could take years. There are a lot of potential problems that can be eliminated simply by stripping the idea down to its simplest form.

Strategically placed sensors and a few reliable algorithms are enough to get one from place to place. Though it goes against what we are taught nowadays, in this case, the less computation the better. The cars will have fewer chances to get confused, thus making fewer errors

The cart’ssensors are made by using laser rangefinders, mounting them at several different height levels, and pairing them with a camera. Remarkably, none of these parts had to be invented or specially created. Each one of the parts used can be found on the shelves of local shops and producers.

Overall Experience

How well does it actually work? A large, slow lizard was crossing the path of the cart. Since the carts move pretty slowly as well, they have large processing times. The cart was able to notice the lizard in its path and recalculate.

Scientists have been working on the answers to the self-driving car for decades. This self-driving golf cart is a huge step in the right direction. The first working self-driving cars will likely be a spin-off of this type of technology. Years from now, you can tell your grandchildren that you remember the first “autonomous” vehicle that started it all.

Final Thoughts

Self-driving vehicles have been in the news more and more lately. There are a lot of companies working on them. The technology is available; now it is just a matter of adapting it properly.

No one can deny that the self-driving golf cart is a fun and interesting concept. While it may lead to even bigger and better things, for now … just sit back and (literally) enjoy the ride.