The automotive industry is undergoing the biggest transformation in its 130-year history. Automakers and suppliers around the world are scrambling to develop autonomous vehicles. And, they’re under increasing pressure from outsiders ranging from Silicon Valley tech giants to startup entrepreneurs.
Agricultural engineers around the world are developing robotic tractors. Autonomous vehicles equipped with state-of-the-art computers, lasers, sensors, GPS systems and machine vision technology are closer to reality than most people realize.
Today's unmanned military vehicles trace their roots to a Serbian immigrant. In 1898, Tesla was granted a U.S. patent for a “Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles.” The patent covered “any type of vessel or vehicle which is capable of being propelled and directed, such as a boat, a balloon or a carriage.”
The Pentagon plans to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to create a new generation of unmanned vehicles for various land, sea and air applications. Those devices will require a wide variety of state-of-the-art robotics, sensors, electronics, vision systems, grippers, controls, batteries and other components
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