Posted on 05/16/2015 6:22:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Heres something that irks Chris Urmson: Sometimes people will get in self-driving cars, the spectacularly complex piece of technology he runs at Google and to which he has devoted most of his scientific career, and leave with a shrug.
Once, Urmson was riding in one of Googles Lexus SUVs down a freeway. Several minutes in, his fellow passenger turned to him, nonplussed.
Thats it?
Urmson, recalling the story on Googles Mountain View campus earlier this week, threw up his hands: Do you have any idea how hard this is?!
Soon, there may be many more blasé reactions to one of Googles most audacious moonshots. On Friday, the Internet giant announced that the first autonomous vehicle it has manufactured a squat two-seater, unveiled a year ago, with no steering wheel or brakes will begin rolling out on public roads in northern California this summer. Urmson and his team have assembled 25 of the cars, which, for now, are just called prototypes. (Re/code has dubbed them clown cars; Google may be more partial to the Koala car nomenclature.) When they hit the roads, they will not exceed 25 miles per hour. And, due to current state regulations, they must be equipped with brakes, an accelerator pedal and a steering wheel.
But ultimately, Google wants to strip those out.
The companys stated goal is shepherding fleets of vehicles that can drive with no need for human intervention, a bid to curtail the time wasted in traffic and aide those unable to drive. At that point, the steering wheel and brake pedal just dont add value, Urmson said during the demonstration at the new Google X headquarters in Mountain View.
(Excerpt) Read more at recode.net ...
What happens when it’s “decided” that the biggest hazard to self driving cars are those of us without them, remembering that we now live in the time where the minority opinion rules all?
That would be a likely course of action, but before that happens there will likely be mass unrest.
RE: In 2010, there were an estimated 5,419,000 crashes (30,296 fatal crashes), killing 32,999 and injuring 2,239,000
That’s like 2 jumbo jets crashing every week...
When I enter an intersection of stop signs, with queues at every sign, I look for hesitation, timidity, and uncertainty, and I just go whether it is “my turn” or not. If everyone is on the ball, I wait my turn.
When these self driving cars appear at stop sign intersections, people like me will see their weakness (Asimov’s Laws?), and just go. They will be cut in front of for leaving too much following distance. They will be cut off because people trust them to stop. They will be bullied and intimidated right off the road — literally.
It ain’t gonna work.
Uh, no.... I’d rather drive, driving requires intuition and human judgement, as imperfect as the latter is, it will still be better than a computer.
So it would be useless during a zombie attack
Fine.. But can they handle playing chicken?
How long before they start getting snatched off the streets and end up in chop shops?
Where does the luggage go?
SO....... TELL ME AGAIN HOW GOOGLE GOT ITS HANDS ON
MILITARY GRADE GPS....
nothing to do with political contributions fer sure
perhaps the same way the Chinese got their hands on satellite technology from LORAL under Clintoon.... $$$$$$$
Expected to hit speeds up to 25 MPH pack lunch for long drive.
Had years ago where we came upon road construction that they didn’t even know what they were doing. Nobody was directing traffic as they were prepping the road for resurfacing, both lanes the the median. No cones or markers were anywhere. It was “you figure it out.” We got through with no direction from those working there.
This week I was expected to pull a road out of my rear end. They had fire trucks blocking both lanes and cones in the median for an accident. Lanes on the other side were moving normally. They were routing us through a residential neighborhood although nobody was directing traffic. The last ambulance left as I got to the choke point. Lucky for me I knew the neighborhood as friends I used to party with in high school used to live there.
My guess in both cases is that a self driving car would have just stopped and not moved until things got back to normal.
You make valid points and if there is no manual override (i.e. No steering wheel or pedals like Google wants) then what would you?
Add to the list;
This would destroy the sports car market as fast acceleration would be a thing of the past. Not to mention speeding would also be forbidden. Sure would help out in an emergency. /sarcasm.
Any major infraction or missed payments could have your car leaving you for a city lot at the whim of the gubmint. You would have to pay plenty to get it back like the towing rackets do now.
Don’t even get me started on what hackers could do with those cars.
Everyone is right to be afraid but I think this coming. People might get injured or killed for some reason but elites may look on the populace the same way that World War I generals looked at soldiers.
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