Explosion in compute power enables automated driving

This summer I've been reading a preview copy of Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car. Penned by former GM R&D chief Larry Burns with co-author Christopher Shulgan, the book is both a personal memoir and a chronicle of the birth of the modern automated vehicle. It's been more than a decade since I first rode in an AV, the Chevrolet Tahoe dubbed “Boss” which was built by the Tartan Racing team from Carnegie Mellon University.

That big SUV bristled with sensors including a first-generation Velodyne lidar on the roof. While it successfully navigated around the test course at the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge as well as the parking-lot course at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show where I first encountered it, Boss didn't have much practical use. It was a proof-of-concept vehicle that could autonomously navigate a relatively complex environment without a human operator.