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How Google Got States To Legalize Driverless Cars
Associated Press ^ | 5/30/14 | Justin Pritchard

Posted on 05/30/2014 11:13:25 PM PDT by Lmo56

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- About four years ago, the Google team trying to develop cars driven by computers - not people - concluded that sooner than later, the technology would be ready for the masses. There was one big problem: No state had even considered whether driverless cars should be legal.

And yet this week, Google said it wants to give Californians access to a small fleet of prototypes it will make without a steering wheel or pedals.

The plan is possible because, by this time next year, driverless cars will be legal in the tech giant's home state.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: automatedcars; car; cronycapitalism; cronycorporatism; donoevil; doublestandard; driverless; driverlesscars; experimentation; fascism; google; highways; lobbyists; noaccountability; payforplay; payola; publicroads; safetyfirst; scienceexperiment
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To: jsanders2001
Computers will one day entirely map and then mimic the architecture of the brain. Eventually their material performance will exceed the organic human brain that we know today. They may still lack a “soul” or personality buy will exceed current humans in all practical, material operations.

They will either be semi-organic systems or quantum processors that simulate an organic brain. Basically man-made brains that can interface with global networks and machines.

Will they someday be “better” than humans? Humans will have many man-made upgrades of their own by then so it is difficult to say. But the machines will definitely someday be better thinkers (by any measurable standard) than 99% of organic humans. How long it will take I don't know but it is inevitable

41 posted on 05/31/2014 5:53:30 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: HiTech RedNeck
I think this is for slow speed use, but still. It will take only one visible duck-up to give Google a black eye.

How is go◉gle going to get a black eye?

They will simply disappear it from any search results.

It never happened, down the memory hole, Citizen.

42 posted on 05/31/2014 7:34:18 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: Greysard; COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; Travis McGee; ..
Cars won't be remotely programmable.

They are now.

OnStar can remotely shut down your car any time it pleases them.

And then there's Michael Hastings...

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

****Important!!!****

I'm starting a new job Monday. This will impact my ability to quickly ping to this list. Don't worry if I don't promptly ping list to an article you've told me about. I'll get there. Eventually.

43 posted on 05/31/2014 7:41:10 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: Greysard

The last mile is conceptually no different than requiring a pilot familiar with the quirks of an individual harbor to supplement the ship’s captain when he gets near port.


44 posted on 05/31/2014 7:44:53 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: null and void

Good luck with your new job!


45 posted on 05/31/2014 7:45:01 AM PDT by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: jsanders2001

But driving IS a menial repetitive task. The only thing that makes driving vary at all from trip to trip is just how bad people are at it. It is exactly what computers do better than people.


46 posted on 05/31/2014 7:52:40 AM PDT by discostu (Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)
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To: Sherman Logan; datura
I never did get an answer to this question:
5/26/2014, 7:04:50 PM · 109 of 175
null and void to datura
Trucking companies would rather pay a human. As a trucking company owner, I know I would.

How much does a year's worth of human cost?

Please include base salary, driver insurance, certifications, healthcare, paid vacations, time lost for mandatory rest, per mile charges and other things you as a trained professional skilled in the industry would know, that I don't.


47 posted on 05/31/2014 7:55:21 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: dagogo redux

Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it!


48 posted on 05/31/2014 7:55:54 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: Lmo56

As a father of two kids who will begin driving in 10 years, nothing would please me more than having a computer handle the driving for them when that time comes. I can assure you a computer will one day make a far better driver than any 16 year old.


49 posted on 05/31/2014 8:04:30 AM PDT by NittanyLion
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To: null and void; datura
Trucking companies would rather pay a human. As a trucking company owner, I know I would.

The personal preferences of company owners is about as comprehensively irrelevant as anything I can imagine. If competitors are able to cut their costs by 20%, to pick a number, and therefore undercut your price by a similar amount, you have no choice but to imitate them. Refuse to do so, and you're quickly out of business.

Used to have this discussion with those who thought businessmen in certain fields had a free choice as to whether to employ Americans or immigrants, possibly illegal ones.

They don't, of course. If doing so lowers your competition's costs and therefore prices enough, you have the choice of doing the same or going down. Which is no help to your American employees.

50 posted on 05/31/2014 8:04:54 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: null and void

Congratulations, nully, and best of luck.

Thank you for all the pings — I really appreciate them.


51 posted on 05/31/2014 8:05:34 AM PDT by Borax Queen
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To: Sherman Logan; datura

datura’s point was a human is cheaper than a frickin’ computer/sensor/actuator/software package.


52 posted on 05/31/2014 8:07:48 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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To: 1_Rain_Drop
Ponder this: Presently, do cars cause accidents or the drivers?

Well, I just read an article that said guns cause murders.


53 posted on 05/31/2014 8:08:45 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: null and void

It is going to be funny as heck when the first driver-less cars start doing stupid things like trying to back out of garages with the door down or driving into garages with the door closed...

And not so funny when they run over the neighborhood kids...


54 posted on 05/31/2014 8:10:41 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: discostu

We’ll see about that...; )

Liberals / progressives are great about promising but not delivering. A human can react and make the best decision better than most computers I’ve seen. They may be great at playing chess in a fixed poition where all variables are kniwn nd accounted for but I wouldn’t put my life in the hands of one. You’re just asking for trouble. Too many unknown variables come into play on a split second by second basis...


55 posted on 05/31/2014 8:13:54 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: null and void; datura

Datura is, IMO, wrong.

Let us assume you operate a taxi service. Such a package would replace two, possibly three, drivers.

What is the cost over three years to employ three drivers, everything costed?

I don’t really know, but I suspect it’s well over $500k, possibly closer to $1M.

That’s a pretty big financial incentive to switch. I have no idea what such a system would cost now, but as with all things electronic the cost will quickly come down. Five years after general acceptance of the concept, I’d be quite surprised if the package would add more than $20k to the cost of a vehicle.


56 posted on 05/31/2014 8:16:31 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: jsanders2001

We’ll see about that...; )

Liberals / progressives are great about promising but not delivering. A human can react and make the best decision better than most computers I’ve seen. Computers may be great at playing chess in a fixed poition where all variables are known and accounted for but I wouldn’t put my life in the hands of one. You’re just asking for trouble. Too many unknown variables come into play on a split second by second basis...


57 posted on 05/31/2014 8:16:39 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Lmo56

When my car runs low on gas, it will pull into the gas station that pays Google the most and instruct me to fill it up. Makes sense.


58 posted on 05/31/2014 8:16:53 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: GraceG

> It is going to be funny as heck when the first driver-less cars start doing stupid things like trying to back out of garages with the door down or driving into garages with the door closed...

And not so funny when they run over the neighborhood kids...

And what if you’re a dissenter and you’ve had the mark of the beast implant so they where you are 24/7 and what if you happen to be crossing the street and your neighbor’s car suddenly swerves and makes a bee line for you. Yeah I know it’s hyperbole NOW but you know how the incrementalists work...


59 posted on 05/31/2014 8:20:52 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Sherman Logan
Datura is, IMO, wrong.

Ya THINK?!?!???

He vanished when asked for a hard number.

Ah well, back to the Jimsonweed tea.

Red as a beet, dry as a bone, hot as a pistol, blind as a bat (except of course, for seeing all those little people)...

60 posted on 05/31/2014 8:25:54 AM PDT by null and void (Disarm Hollywood! No Guns for Box Office!)
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