I posted two other things today, but I couldn’t wait to share this article. So please see the IE Demotivational Poster and the Who Do I Punch? comic strip.
The Official Google Blog posted What We’re Driving At which tells about the Self Driving car they are building.
First, the car in the picture is not the Google self driven car.
Second, I had NO IDEA Google was working on a self driving car.
This is just awesome news!
Everyone thinks I’m crazy for wanting a car that drives itself. But with the technology done right, everything about driving would become safer, faster, and more efficient.
Most people respond that they don’t trust a machine in control of their car.
I ask, Why the heck do you trust a HUMAN
to be in control of a car?!
Computers don’t get distracted.
Computers don’t spill coffee on themselves.
Computers don’t stare at joggers.
Computers don’t have blind spots.
Computers don’t fall asleep.
Computers don’t get drunk!
Two Previous Articles:
I have been obsessed with a car that would drive itself since before I was even capable of driving, and now my favorite company in the world is trying to bring that technology home!
Previously I predicted that Cars would Drive themselves in 10 years,
and shared that Internet Enabled Cars are Best.
Computers Are Networked, So Shall Our Cars Be
In my prediction for self driving cars in 10 years, I talked about my dream of a stoplight turning green and every car in the line moves simultaneously, which is far more efficient than the current method.
But think about the thousands of little time wasters that occur in driving.
Stop lights would not have to exist any longer.
If every car was networked, and could sense other cars, then they could track a car’s proximity and adjust accordingly to prevent colliding in an intersection.
My hometown, Columbia, Missouri is also really big on roundabouts. Those stop-light & stop-sign-less circles that have existed in Europe far longer than America. These would also be perfect to accommodate self driving cars.
Think of the electricity and maintenance money saved on not having to maintain traffic signals anymore.
What about getting rid of road signs all together? A car, thanks to Google Maps, knows exactly what the speed is on a given road, and adjusts accordingly and thanks to GPS the car knows exactly where it is, and exactly where it is going.
No more road construction traffic jams. The car automatically re-routes itself to the least congested roadway.
And most importantly, think of cutting traffic fatalities by 90%!
Google states, “According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents.”
Humans have blind spots. Humans fall asleep at the wheel. Humans get behind the wheel under the influence of harmful substances.
Bottom line, Humans are massively flawed.
A self driven car would see a deer in the bushes before a human would even know it was there.
A self driven car can sense another car out of control miles down the road and could adjust properly.
A self driven car could adjust for road conditions and won’t over steer, over correct or freak out when it starts to slide.
Go Google!
Your biggest fan boy signing off!
Update: Marcelo Camelo buzzes about Google’s Self Driving Car.
the darpa challenge has been around for some years now with the purpose of building a self driving car. many companies enter and some of their cars always end up veering off the road or driving into a building or something. I know the technology isn’t mature yet but it still doesn’t give me that much confidence in the future of unmanned vehicles.