Goldfish Can Learn to Drive Robotic Cars on Land, New Study Finds

Using motion-sensing technology, including a top-down camera that monitors movement, a team at Ben Gurion University trained fish to reach a target via a "fish-operated vehicle"

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Scientists in Israel have reportedly trained goldfish to drive.

Using motion-sensing technology, including a top-down camera that monitors movement, a team at Ben Gurion University trained fish to reach a target via a "fish-operated vehicle," using food as positive reinforcement. The vehicle consisted of a robotic car bottom with a square fish tank placed on top.

According to NBC News, when the camera sensed the fish driver swimming close to a specific side of the tank, it would send a signal to one of the vehicle's wheels.

The study, which was published in the Behavioral Brain Research Journal this month, included six goldfish — one female, three males, and two of undetermined sex. For training, they were allowed 10 driving lessons.

To perform their research, scientists used domain transfer methodology, a method in which "one species is embedded in another species' environment and must cope with an otherwise familiar (in our case, navigation) task," according to their report. "Here, we push this idea to the limit by studying the navigation ability of a fish in a terrestrial environment."

Scientists further manipulated that environment by placing obstacles in the fish's way and found that goldfish could successfully overcome environmental manipulation.

Though there were some hiccups at first, the fish eventually "were able to operate the vehicle, explore the new environment, and reach the target regardless of the starting point, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting location inaccuracies," the study said.

Ronen Segev, a professor at Ben-Gurion University and an expert in fish behavior told the outlet, "If you look at the phylogenetic tree of evolution, the branch that we sit on and the branch that fish sit on just diverged away 450 million years ago."

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He added, "It's not that fish are primitive, they just developed in a very different world from us. They need to solve sophisticated [problems] to exist in their environment."

The research team concluded that fish are capable of adapting their abilities to navigate "a wholly different terrestrial environment," supporting their hypothesis that fish "possess a universal quality that is species-dependent."