Russian Startup Offers Wireless Remote Controller For Cars 65
DeviceGuru writes "A Russian startup called Virt2real has produced a small $120 Linux-based WiFi controller board for remote control and video observation applications, and has demonstrated its use in a remote controlled car. Inspired by Back to the Future and James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Virt2real's Bond Car demo (YouTube video) shows a Vauxhall (Opel) Vectra being remotely controlled by an iPad via WiFi. The iPad interface includes touchscreen-based steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator, which are mirrored in the car by a mechanical contraption that physically turns the steering wheel and pushes the brake and accelerator pedals. The company is now accepting orders for the first 1,000 of its Virt2real controller board, and is working on a Virt2real-based Bond Car it that will work with most cars."
Drones, Anyone? (Score:2)
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a full-size car...
The Opel fan club would like a word with you.
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Yes, it is not a car. It's a driving experience.
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package (Score:1)
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pfffft (Score:2)
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In a modern car with electronic stability control, antilock brakes, and drive-by-wire throttle cable it's silly to make something that pushes the pedals. It's even sillier to have a pulley and a belt turn the steering wheel when many new cars have park-assist, where the steering can be controlled by the vehicle.
With many modern cars such a system could be implemented without making it obvious
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In defense of the Mythbuster's they often remote control the cars in the first place because they plan to destroy them or at least to put them at serious risk of destruction. That is not something for economic reasons you generally want to do with new cars. So they tend to be using cars that are around 10 years old which do not have these electronic systems, to utilize.
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The people behind this new implementation should be embarrassed.
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Big R/C car (Score:5, Interesting)
They've built a big R/C car. All they did was put R/C servos on steering and throttle. (They don't show how they actuated the brakes.) Running this through WiFi and an iPad instead of just using a regular R/C transmitter adds lag.
Their setup looks dangerously flaky. They have an R/C servo on the throttle, with nothing to force a closed throttle on failure.
wifi let's them have nice video but not much range (Score:2)
wifi let's them have nice video but not much range.
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wifi let's them have nice video but not much range.
And that's a good thing.
You want computer driven cars, fine, but make sure your ass is in them taking the risk. At least that way half baked lashups like this won't be running around the street. Given enough bandwidth, and range this thing could be dangerous. Put a LTE cell phone in there and turn on wifi tethering, and you have a cheap bomb delivery platform, big enough to carry enough for major damage.
There simply isn't enough processing power in an Ipad to adequately control this thing.
Maybe DROPOUTJEEP [slashdot.org]
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It's a proof-of-concept. It doesn't matter what they use for transmission really, and they could change it in the future if it's a real problem. They could also go the other direction - with 3G, this could have a very big range indeed, albeit not a very good bandwidth and latency.
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That someone can do this. Not theoretically I mean, it's obvious you can, but nobody actually went and did this until now (or they did but I haven't heard about it).
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That someone can do this.
Remote control vehicles are not a new concept.
Not theoretically I mean, it's obvious you can, but nobody actually went and did this until now (or they did but I haven't heard about it).
Using WiFi is hardly "earthshaking". Indeed, I see remote control via WiFi toys at the mall all the time.
Eh what? (Score:3)
I can think of several myth buster episodes in which they build a remote controlled car.
This is REALLY nothing new.
As for using a tablet, you can buy toy helicopters to control from your iphone at any toystore.
Nothing about this is new or exciting. It is a slashvertisement and not a very good one.
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That with enough Vodka you won't mind the snow?
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We're lampooning it, in part, because it's so Mythbusters to control the car with belts and pulleys and by pushing the pedals when many modern cars could be electronically told to do that.
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No, most cars cannot do it electronically.
The only things you can do electronically in a car is accellerate and change gears (in a auto or autostick). You can even "suggest" the windows and doors lock and unlock. But you have no control over brakes and steering, for obvious reasons. Sure you have ABS and traction control,
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Aren't all remotely driven cars basically big R/C cars? Besides I think correct translation for flaky would be Russian.
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What they've done is nothing new. http://wirc.dension.com/ [dension.com]
In the immortal words of Sheldon Cooper "If anything, it's a modest leap forward from the technology that gave us Country Bear Jamboree."
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Obligatory (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia Car controls YOU.
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Web app or hacked Ipad liability issues and more (Score:2)
Web app or hacked Ipad? liability issues and more like the video surveillance applications that are not on kickstarter may lead to an app store ban.'
apple may not want to be part of this as they likely will get sued if some bad happens.
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anyone that can afford a legal team to combat apple's likely can also afford not to drive a car
China Already Building R/C Cars (Score:3)
At least one chinese automaker is already shipping cars with remote control driving as an option.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkx2ZN4j2vk [youtube.com]
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sudo killall thieves
LOL (Score:1)
So, these guys haven't done anything that you couldn't do with a Raspberry Pi or even an Arduino, with radio controlled model servos.It's a deathtrap/murder machine, of course. But, you could even easily do it with an Ardurover [ardupilot.com].
This will kill somebody. No doubt about it.
and will they have to face the prison time time (Score:2)
and will they have to face the prison time if some does use this to kill people?
This needs to be moderated to +5 (Score:1)
How did this spot on comment get moderated down. No wonder Slashdot is dying.
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..Guess what ... We've been doing it with freaking a airplanes since at least the 80s where they used it to fly a jumbo jet into a wall to study the crash, might have even been the 70s. It had many cameras feeding all sorts of view points off the unmanned jet...
How did this spot on comment get moderated down. No wonder Slashdot is dying.
Because of the reference to remote controlling airplanes. Yes its been done. Yes it is possible. Yes this reminds people of something that some would prefer not be thought of.
There is a patent on a box that is mounted on the bottom of a jet airliner (airplane, helicopter, etc..) that can 100% control it. I have seen it and if you dig through the conspiracy junk, get the patent number, you can search for it like I did.
Remote controlling airplanes causes anyone with a brain to question the official br
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have you ever sat in the cockpit of a modern airliner during a flight?
step 1: plot course into navigation computer
step 2: obligatory pushing of the engine levers etc
step 3: engage autopilot
ok its a little more involved, but there is a hell of a lot of automation in modern aviation... and autopilots that control pitch,roll,yaw,trim,power/trhust etc have been around for a long time. new planes like the a380 include much more advanced avionics that i think with the assistance of an ILS can land on its own. the
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airliners mostly fly themselves nowadays
the only thing they can't yet do is crash themselves... you need human input for that
no engineering (Score:2)
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everyone's an armchair expert on slashdot... you'll get used to it
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Officer: 'sir, you have *some bullshit reason to get pulled over at bar close*. License and registration?
Passenger of remotely controlled vehicle: 'eyeavenada (un+ all day drinkstable'