Here’s a study you don’t hear every day: teaching goldfish how to DRIVE.
That’s right. A team of scientists in Israel is doing just that – and they’ve done it successfully!
These fishy nerds wanted to see if fish could navigate on land by creating a small, robotic vehicle with a fish tank on it. The scientists attached wheels on the bottom, so it could move in any direction. The clever name for the vehicle . . . “F.O.V.” or “Fish Operated Vehicle.”
With a special camera on top, the scientists were able to track how the fish moved, and translated it into directions for the fish-car (aka F.O.V.). So if the fish swam toward one side of the tank, the whole thing would go that direction at about one mile per hour.
Next, the fishy nerds put the vehicle in a room with a big target on one of the walls. And if it could make it to the target, they’d reward the goldfish with food.
How long did it take to teach the goldfish you ask? It took a few days. But the fish eventually got pretty good at driving, and could basically do a straight line right to the target. Researchers ultimately taught six different goldfish to drive, so it wasn’t a fluke.
Check out the goldfish driving in the short video below!