The guys at Google have apparently been testing Driver less cars releasing them on the unsuspecting population of California with a whopping 140,000 miles on the clock it is an impressive display of technology. Driver less cars are not exactly new, but I am not sure they have been as extensively tested in real life situations as the Google team have put their implementation through.
A Software engineer at google in his blog observed that there are benefits: Reduction in death caused by drivers, energy saving and freeing up more productive time. These benefits are definitely a good thing, provided that it works. Reassuring the public he announced that although the cars are driving themselves, safety precautions are in place. Namely a real driver that can at an instance take over should there be a problem and a passenger is monitoring the software powering the car constantly.He also says that local police are informed, I’m not sure if that’s so that if something does go wrong, they can legitimately blame the computer and not take the responsibility.
He further observed: “While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science.” I can see it now, your sitting in your car, completely blacked out from the outside, Google Maps on the front window, Ad-Words on the side windows, and your search results on the back window. How disturbing.
At least, Google is not the only company working on this technology, and I am certain that the big Car manufacturers will want to get into this field before it becomes the main means of transport in the future.
References
The Gaurdian
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