Look At Possibly The First Drone - It Drove On The Roads Almost 30 Years Ago

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 02:36

The French agency AFP published on YouTube archival footage of tests of an unmanned vehicle that took place in South Korea back in 1993 - many years before Tesla was founded. The project, developed by researcher Han Min Hon, was never completed, although the scientist is confident that his technologies from 30 years ago are still comparable to those of Elon Musk.

• The videos of the early 90s clearly show how the car moves along a busy highway, periodically steering it on its own, while its creator is so confident in his brainchild that he sits in the back seat. You can see that the passenger seat is occupied by a stationary computer (according to the agency, based on the 386th Intel processor).
• According to AFP, the first tests of the Korean drone took place in 1993, and two years later, Han Min Hon drove 300 kilometers in his car from the capital to the southern port of Busan.

• The South Korean authorities did not see any particular prospects in the research that the inventor conducted on the basis of one of the universities, so at some point the funding was stopped. The country's economy at that time focused on the development of heavy industry, while high-tech samples were preferred to be purchased abroad, rather than developed on their own. Plus, 30 years ago, nobody believed in the safety of self-driving cars.
• Among other things, Han Min Hon is considered the creator of the first navigation system in South Korea and the developer of a mini-helicopter, which is called the ancestor of modern quadrocopters. According to him, if his projects were launched then, now the country would be the world leader in the field of autonomous mobility.
• As AFP clarifies, the 79-year-old Korean inventor is still working on some nuances of autonomous control systems and, although he highly appreciates Tesl's contribution to this industry, he is confident that Elon Musk's current technologies are comparable with his developments of the 90s. Han Min Hong is even ready to conduct joint tests of his drone and Tesla electric car. Nevertheless, according to the researcher, it is still impossible to build a full-fledged unmanned vehicle with a fully autonomous control system.

• Elon Musk himself promised that Tesl electric cars one day - and soon enough - will reach the maximum, fifth level of autonomy. At the same time, in March it became known that even the developers do not consider their Full Self-Driving function, which Tesla is now equipped with, as a full-fledged autopilot.