The military’s tried nearly everything to stop insurgent bombs. It’s tried jamming their detonation signals. It’s tried scouring roads for them with metal detectors like beach bums searching for treasure. And it’s tried — lots of times — to put robots in the way of the boom. No dice: the bombs keep proliferating, largely because of how cheap they are to construct.
So it was only a matter of time, perhaps, before someone thought to put KITT on the job.
The Army’s latest scheme to stop homemade bombs is pretty much inspired by Knight Rider. A California company called 5D Robotics recently won a contract of unspecified amount to develop an interface with an “intelligent” unmanned car that will “effectively perform improvised explosive device defeat (IEDD) tasks remotely.”
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