Google Self Driving Car Debut

[velma 6]

[media]http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/]

 

While going through the daily news, I happened to come across this article about Google's Driver less car. Announced in 2010 after securing a patent, Google has been working on a car that could help automate further the process of traveling. The volunteer in question was Steve Mahan, a blind person who quite honestly seems to be loving every second of the ride

 

The Google team modified a Prius for the sake of this project and apparently the driver less driver uses different technologies as sensors ranging from lasers, radars and video cameras. If you are interested in reading about other autonomous cars and general information on autonomous cars, here is the wiki .

 

As many news websites have mentioned, the common advantages of having these bot cars is that it reduces the number of owned cars, parking hassles and possibly a lot of pollution. Though they have stressed this to be a solution for the blind, it could be a solution for a lot of people. Because if it is a solution for blind people, it obviously would mean that no sort of supervision is required to keep the journey safe and user friendly.

 

Handicapped or recently handicapped people, old people who aren't as alert but still need a car. Pregnant women, drunk people, deaf people, those who can't drive. Epileptic people or even pet owners. A lot of people in this world needing cars but are not allowed to or cannot drive would really benefit. I would not mind if my car dropped me off at work and went along to do the same for others only to return back in the evening to pick me up

 

Even though it is true that there are still a lot of hurdles that need to be crossed before this car is ever seen on the road, it is a nice dream to float on. I would only hope that existing rules for human drivers would get stricter if these cars are coming onto the road since even with the best of technology, no driver is more responsive than a human driver and we remove the reckless ones, driving can be fun for all once again. Anyone else has any thoughts on this new car?

Edited March 29, 2012 by velma (see edit history)

[sheepdog 10]

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. There are certain "advances" in technoligy that actually bug me a little.Case in point, those toilets that flush for you. Honestly, when humans get to lazy/nasty/crude that they can't fulsh the toilet after themselves, I find that pretty disgusting that we have a need for such devices. As for the self driving cars, sure, it would be a great advantage for some people, especially the blind like you mentioned, but I'm not really sure how it would be a big help in some of the claims, like make less traffic and polution, since it would still be driving around, and it's unlikely that many people would be willing to share the same car, and if they did it would still be out there running up and down the road. Anyway, there are those of us that like to drive. I don't think I want to get in a vehicle, punch some buttons and then sit there like a lump. If I'm just going to be sitting there, I could stay home and watch TV!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I don't like the idea of these cars because assuming they are completely automated, how can you account for people who aren't being attentive and aren't in these types of cars? I highly doubt it'd be feasible to force every current car to be taken off the road to allow these to take over, so you will always have people who are in control of their own vehicles. When they're drunk and/or inattentive, that puts your life in danger. And if you can't even control your car, that makes it even worse.

[multfilm 0]

And definitely I don't think this is new. I remember about a year ago, my brother was showing me the drive test of some car in England, that was supposed to be able to drive around badgers running around on the road. With a cool British accent guy animating the whole thing. Those things are pricey though. The one in England cost around $40K or more... or was that pounds?