BAE Autonomous Wildcat

Hopefully I have got the pictures inserted correctly, dont even know if this is the correct place to put this or even if its been covered here before but hey, here we go.....
Went to the RIAT airshow @ Fairford last weekend and whilst on a wander I saw a Bowler Wildcat on a display stand. Curious why it would be at an airshow I went for a closer look. Its a BAE testbed for autonomous driving software. An autonomous Wildcat? I though that would be like buying an Aston Martin and then hiring a cheauffer??!! I got chatting to one of the engineers, full on nerdy look c/w Billy-Bob type teeth gaps but impressions can be misleading. The guy was one of the chief engineers and explained they wanted a tough car as a testbed, once the software was sorted it would then be fixed to a vehicle more suited to its specific purpose, be it ambulance, emergency extraction, troop movement etc. but they chose the Wildcat for its track record as this is capable of 70 kph autonomously so during the testing the engineers who would be in the vehicle wanted to know they would be safe. The engineer even said their only regret, vehicle wise, was that they had to use the TD5 and not the V8 due to space required for all the gubbins!
(Appologies for photo quality if they're crap, taken on my Sonim! LOL)
The aeroplane wasn't bad either, especially the Eurofighter, Raptor and the Vulcan!

Cool ..

Can't see many applications for autonomous driving outside the forces mind ..

cant see the idea behind having a winch on a car without a driver either

goonarmy said:

cant see the idea behind having a winch on a car without a driver either

Click to expand...

ha ha aye fooked fer slef recovery unless carrying winch bitch...