Elon Musk has never been the one to shy away from making bold claims and pushing the boundary of what is possible, while other Car manufacturers like Nissan are still wondering whether to use call-centres to operate Self-Driving cars under certain conditions, Elon Musk thinks Tesla’s cars will get “Fully Self-Driving Capabilities” within the next 3-6 months.
3 months maybe, 6 months definitely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2017
Levels of Driving Automation
“Fully Self-Driving Capabilities” is an unambiguous term and what Musk is referring to might be the related to his earlier statement about dispatching a Tesla on a fully autonomous “American road trip” from Los Angeles to New York by the end of this year. A road trip that many consider is closer to Level 4 driving automation than fully autonomous driving capabilities i.e. the ability to drive wherever, whenever, whatever the weather without any fallback or assistance by humans.
What do the different levels of driving automation actually refer to? Here’s an handy chart from the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Image provided by SAE International and J3016
The timeline might sound a bit hurried and unrealistic but Tesla has been pushing the boundary when it comes to Driving Automation and if there is one company that seems poised to be the leader in Self-Driving cars, it certainly is them. The LA to NYC road trip might after all happen sooner than we expect!
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Smartwatches, GPS-equipped wearables, fitness apps… Tracking your location while working out is easier and more accessible than ever before. It’s also very useful and frankly speaking I don’t know any runner who doesn’t do that. Some, do it to share it with friends, others to keep track of their workouts. But there is also a third group of users that decided to add some spice to their workouts and turned it into an art…
The idea is simple. You plan a route of your workout in such a way that your GPS tracks will create a particular pattern on a map. Some of these GPS artworks are really interesting, and other are meant to impress or make you smile. There is even one case where an artist proposed by spelling “Marry Me” on a map. Creative! It is amazing to see, what people can do with fitness apps and tracking devices. Here are a couple of examples.
1. World map
source: Road
2. Giraffe (95.5 km, 3h 30min)
source: GPS Doodle
3. Runner
source: apartmenttherapy.com
4. T-Rex
source: GPS Doodles
5. Nike Shoe
source: PFSK
6. Marriage proposal
source: Venture Beat
7. Darth Vader
source: GPS Doodles
8. Horse
source: Smith Journal
9. Queen Victoria
source: GPS Doodles
10. Baby Panda
source: Vimeo
The Global Positioning System is your paintbrush, and you can draw anything you want. There is no limitation, and almost anyone can do it! Of course, it will cost a lot of effort, but after completing the exercise, you feel satisfied with your work.
