This MIT Startup Says It Can Make Any Car Autonomous for $10K

As reported by Wired: Google gets all the love when it comes to self-driving cars, and all the biggest automakers are well on the way to selling us autonomous vehicles. But a startup run by a bunch of MIT grads plans to make almost any car on the road autonomous, and do it a whole lot faster—and cheaper—than those guys.

For a mere $10,000, Cruise Automotive will install its RP1 highway autopilot system on any car, as long as it is a 2012 or newer Audi A4 or S4. Although company CEO Kyle Vogt says the tech will work with any car, Cruise started with a single model. He promises Cruise offers greater autonomous capability than what’s available from automakers offering things like adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning systems, and it will be widely available years before Google’s car.

“We’re right in the middle” of the two approaches, he says.

Vogt says he’s wanted to build a self-driving car since he was in middle school. As an MIT undergrad, he participated in the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race. His team’s entry relied upon servers piled into the bed of a pickup truck, which is not an approach that works with most cars. In the years since, the technology has evolved and miniaturized. The public has warmed to the idea of cars that drive themselves. And the regulatory atmosphere is pondering the opportunities and problems posed by non-human drivers.

“The timing is right for this,” Vogt says.

Before it can get to market, however, the technology needs to be properly legalized. Nearly half of states have passed, voted down, or are considering bills concerning automated driving, according to Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society. The current rules are something of “a moving target,” Vogt says, promising that Cruise will meet any regulations that are created.

Cruise, which was founded last year, falls between Google’s “moonshot approach”—making its first product a fully autonomous car, possibly without a steering wheel or pedals—and the auto industry’s inch-by-inch approach of introducing autonomous features slowly.

Cruise’s technology is not groundbreaking. A “sensor pod” containing radar and an undisclosed number of cameras sits atop the roof to watch the road. A computer that occupies less than two square feet in the trunk crunches the data and controls actuators under the pedals and on the steering wheel to move them as needed. It isn't so different from what Mercedes-Benz has done with 'Steering Assist with Stop&Go Pilot' it’s offered on S-Class and E-Class models since last year. But Mercedes, worried about liability, tweaked the system so it doesn't work if the driver takes his hands off the wheel. General Motors is working on a similar system, called SuperCruise, that eliminates the hands-on requirement. It hopes to launch it in a Cadillac model by 2020.

Vogt says Cruise can offer more than Mercedes does and offer it long before Cadillac. Pay $10,000 today and your Audi will be driving itself sometime next year. Vogt says the system can be made to work with any car, but Cruise decided to start with one model, and a high-end car made sense given the cost of the system. It chose Audi for its appeal as a “young, edgy brand.”

Audi may be flattered by that designation, but it doesn't like the idea of customers altering its cars–which already offer a suite of driver assistance systems. “Audi of America does not support or condone the modification of its vehicles by third parties for this or other purposes,” a rep says, adding that Audi is developing an automated driving system that should be ready within five years.