We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Autonomous driving can become quite complicated. Smart paint to the rescue?
I’m sure you’re aware of the research being done to produce smart cars and trucks that drive themselves. But it may be more complicated than simply designing the sensors for the vehicles. What if there’s snow on the road? Or if the road markings have been worn off, or if it’s raining so hard or so foggy that the sensors can’t see the road?
It turns out that 3M has been working on this for years, first with a smart magnetic paint that vehicle sensors can “see” through the snow, then with smart road signs that vehicles can read to know what’s coming up ahead.
The big problem, as with everything it seems nowadays, is to figure out how to prevent hacking. You’re driving along the highway at 50 mph and the sign tells your car to speed up to 90!
Anyway, some new smart paint developments to keep your eye on.
– Bob Flexner
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
I guess I can be classified as an old foigy dufus but cars driving themselves seems like a wet dream of some layer. I can see vehicles offering suggestions to real humans that are alert and attentive to what is going on around them, but giving up control of a huge piece of metal flying down a road at 65mph is not my idea of a a good thing and fraught with likely human injury. I think texting and driving is dangerous enough! I know my comment is off topic a bit to your point of how paint is playing a roll in future autonomous vehicles but I just couldn’t help myself. {|8-)>—