Autovan

About

Autovan, not to be confused with Automan, was a company in the Parodyne universe which sought to develop autonomous VW buses. The company was headed by founder and CTO Arlo Johnson and mainly employed dropouts from Stanford, and one dropout from Allegheny County Community College. They were the only company in the AV industry known to have drug tested all of its employees; every employee was required to microdose LSD during work hours and was to take part in a yearly ‘vision quest’ trip in the Mojave desert. The team consisted of a mixture of mechanical and electrical engineers, mathematician, and computer scientists. Autovan recruited all of their developers at war protests, the Homebrew Computer Club, and Stanford frat parties.

Autovan’s tech was outstanding for the time. Because the VW bus had such a large cargo area, they were able to fit several 8-bit computers in the vehicle and perform basic highway-driving autonomy functions. The sensor suite consisted of four large broadcast cameras and a single-channel spinning lidar sensor affixed to the roof. Because the single laser beam only spun on the horizontal plane and was located on the top of the vehicle, all it could detect was buildings, trees, and tall vehicles.

Unfortunately the computer technology at the time simply wasn’t capable of driving vehicles, and the company was forced to close its doors in 1973, just before a Cambrian explosion of robotics and AI technology allowed for the development of the sentient droids featured in Star Wars.

Controversies

Arlo Johnson’s early career started off during his post-doc years when he was recruited to work for a startup in “stealth mode”. In reality, he had been recruited by the CIA to work on mind control technology. The program centered around using lidar sensors, small cameras and computers to control humans’ behavior. After it was discovered that LSD would be a better candidate for testing and MK Ultra was formed, Project Collywobbles shifted to mind control for dogs. The program was later scrapped when research revealed that simple verbal commands and small delicious treats were more effective at controlling dogs than computers are. Johnson later went to work for Atari for the rest of his career.

Arlo Johnson was also a communist.