Gadgetory

we're at the Concord Naval Weapons Depot this is in Concord California a bedroom community of San Francisco back here in the Cold War this place would have ranked just behind France as a nuclear power by warhead count that's all been decommissioned and now something of a different type of intrigue takes place here teaching self-driving cars how to drive in the real world now they call it go mentum station go mentum station is a 2,100 acre test city with 20 miles of roads dozens of intersections and lots of real if decrepit buildings all of it on county land but still secured by the military car makers like the fact the roads are rough the lane lines in need of a restrike that's great practice for a car learning to drive itself in the real world and the part nicknamed bunker city that's comprised of 100 empty weapons bunkers with a natural grid of streets between them one part could be set up as left-hand-drive america another as right-hand-drive australia 99% of the time when we drive on the roads it's easy driving one percent of the time something unusual happens so by testing it go mentum station we're able to stage those 1% situations on ball running across the road or a child coming out from between cars we're able to test those unusual situations in a safe and secure environment now how these vehicles see their way around go mentum station is many sensors here's a high-resolution GPS antenna to make the mapping really precise up here on the roof is a lidar this does contour mapping with a spinning sensor that sees shapes in the world around it and then cameras have their own unique ability to not just tell what's out there but where something is but what's also being tested here is the early stages of v2v vehicle-to-vehicle communications or v2 V is vehicles speaking or talking directly to other cars ten times a second basic information how fast am I going what heading am I on is there an aspect of the vehicle in motion that needs to be transmitted to another car and what that does it allows drivers to be warned but it also allows vehicles to automatically avoid collisions Honda and Acura engineers are here now but go mentum station would like to add more curious geeks from vehicle makers to those who may be one one day Google Apple other men factures have approached us and we've taken a look at maybe partnering with these companies to begin their testing here at least in California and Concord at the catechol mentum station for their part Honda Acura says they'll have this kind of technology on freeways in early stages by 2020 and perhaps just 20 years later Hondas and Acuras that are crash free as a result in concord california brian Cooley cnet.com for CBS News