Don't you hate backseat drivers? I know I do, especially old scared women who have the feeling that everything you do will get them one step closer to death. “Stop, we're going to crash!” or “Don't you think you're going too fast?” is something that every driver out there has heard at least once in their lifetime. Why would MIT invent a nagging robot like that in order to judge your driving skills, I haven't the slightest of clues.

However, it did and its name is AIDA. Assaf Biderman, associate director of the SENSEable City Lab, explained in more detail what AIDA really is, “When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver's priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences. […] Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location. Soon afterwards the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas.”

Yep, exactly what every driver needed. A nagging robot that thinks it's figured out the best way for you to drive your car. No, thanks, MIT, there's only one robot I want in my car and his name is KITT! Cool voice, great attitude and, most importantly, knows to shut up when he is told to! I really hope that the next one is exactly like the original Knight Rider robot and no nagging, whiny robot that wants to form a symbiotic relationship with you!

I'll leave the ending in the able hands of the very human Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, “AIDA builds on our long experience in building sociable robots. […] We are developing AIDA to read the driver's mood from facial expression and other cues and respond in a socially appropriate and informative way.”


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .