Danger Won’t Find Will Robinson Here!

If you are tired of simply racing cars in arcades, then this could be the job for you. Consumer surveys point to lingering public concerns about the safety of self-driving cars even as the technology launches this year with Waymo’s robot-taxi service in Phoenix.

Silicon Valley startup Phantom Auto thinks it can lessen that anxiety with a backup driver who can take the wheel remotely when a robot chauffeur needs help. “We're not trying to be an AV player. We want to be a safety solution,” Shai Magzimof, Phantom’s 27-year-old CEO, founder and inventor of its technology, told Forbes. Phantom Auto’s remote control “teleoperation” system is a backstop for autonomous vehicles with so-called Level 4 capability, i.e., the ability to drive without human control under select circumstances when road conditions suddenly change because of construction, accidents or other complexities that could stop the vehicle in its tracks. When that happens, a remote technician seated at a multiscreen Phantom console, with a steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals, assesses the situation via the car’s cameras over a cellular network connection and drives it out of the jam. It looks like those driving simulators we had in school will come in handy!

Read the Forbes article here

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