“Data in the Desert” hints at the future of autonomous vehicles
by Ars Staff from Ars Technica - All content on (#64X43)
Enlarge / A cluster of sensors atop the roof of the DLIVEREE. (credit: Gregory Leporati)
PAHRUMP, NEVADA-You could hear Porsches, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis roaring across the desert-or, more specifically, Spring Mountain Motor Resort, a scorching-hot racetrack about 60 miles west of Las Vegas. I was driving a Porsche GT3 RS with Jamie Wall, a professional racecar driver and McLaren coach, beside me-and it handled a bit differently than the 1997 Toyota Camry I've owned for the past 18 years.
"I bet it's a fair bit faster, too," Wall laughed.
As we set out across the winding road course, our goal, technically, was loftier than just having fun: We were acquiring data that could help fuel and inform autonomous vehicles.