Imagine this, you can drive down the road, and text on your phone, eat, do makeup, read, play games, surf the web, or do anything else, while your car is driving itself. Yep, the future like what we have seen on The Jetsons is now here, thanks to Google! Google has been testing self-driving cars for years now, but they have revealed a fully autonomous self-driving car, built from the ground up by Google and their partners, here is the video.
Fully autonomous driving has always been the goal of Google’s project, because they think this could improve road safety and help lots of people who can’t drive. Google is now developing prototypes of vehicles that have been designed from the ground up to drive themselves—just push a button and they’ll take you where you want to go! Google will use these vehicles to test their software and learn what it will really take to bring this technology into the world. And as you noticed in the video above, the cars has no steering wheel, or pedals.
The car has sensors to determine where to turn, how fast to go, and to stop. And the cars does come with a stop button. The car also comes with power steering and power brakes, all internal. As of right now, the cars only has a top speed of 25 mph, but their goal is 100 mph. And they think that self-driving cars will be safer than cars driven by you and me. If they think that, let me introduce Google to drivers down here in Alabama, because I think we are a long way before we see self-driving cars on the roads!
I see drivers every day do stupid things while out on the road, like pull out in front of you, not paying attention, running stop signs and red lights, look at their cell phones, fiddle with the radio, swerve off the road, and more, while operating vehicles that weigh more than 4,000 pounds, most of us are basically easily distracted idiots while driving. And whenever someone swerves towards me, honks their horn at me, throws trash at me, or anything else while I am on the side of the road, I call that driver an idiot, and they deserve that name!
For me, when I drive, it’s sometimes an escape, or a way to clear my mind from everyday things that frustrates me. Yes, concentrating on the road, and other drivers, gets me to think about things! And yes, sometimes when I drive, I will also record my drive and put it on YouTube!
So, is Google about to force all of us into cars that we can barely control? Or does Google want to hurt more people on the roads? And if self-driving cars becomes an everyday reality, will auto insurance companies force us into self-driving cars, because they are safer? One thing I am concerned about self-driving cars is the weather conditions, if the roads are wet, icy, or anything else, are self-driving cars a good idea? If self-driving cars become real, I guess blind people, people with DUI convictions, and other people who can not drive, can get around. But I really want to see a way to override self-driving if something bad happened while out on the road, Google, make it so!
Learn more about the project at: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/just-press-go-designing-self-driving.html
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Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and the
rest of the website is also very good.
Thanks, glad you liked the post and the Geek Alabama blog!