The development of machine vision for road vehicles in the last decade

Machine vision for road vehicles started in the mid-80s. After a very brief review of the initial phase of about half a decade, developments over the last decade are discussed in more detail. The EUREKA-project 'Prometheus' set the stage in Europe and spread activities to all major carmakers and to many universities throughout Europe. The US and some Asian countries soon followed The basic perceptual and behavioral capabilities for driving and for driver assistance on well-kept high-speed roads have been demonstrated at the end of the Prometheus project. Later developments took two directions: 1. Simple systems for early application in confined domains, and 2. more complex systems with growth potential for performance levels closer to the human one. In the meantime, first products with machine vision components are on the market; more highly integrated systems have been announced for the second half of this decade. A road map for the development of vision for cars is discussed.