Google robo cars drive selves on public streets

Google robo cars drive selves on public streets

www.theregister.co.uk

Google has built a fleet of cars that drive themselves, and over the past several months, these robotic vehicles have driven over 140,000 miles on public roads, from the Pacific Coast Highway to the famous twists and turns of San Francisco's Lombard Street
As the company revealed on Saturday morning with a blog post, each car is equipped with video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder that alerts the vehicle to other traffic, and they navigate using maps previously collected by cars that were driven by good old fashioned human beings

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is cool as hell! I don’t see how this can be legal with current traffic laws? They must have been doing this in secret; I just have a few questions for Google. I wonder who would be responsible if these cars were involved in accident or even killed somebody? I mean could you really hold the operator to account under current law or would Google be a fault? Just a few concerns I have, just for the record I think this is great and I can’t wait until it’s perfected and available to the general public!! I feel like I am living in that 1984 book lol

www.theregister.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

just wanted to add the google blog link

.Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology. And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.

So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research.
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Google blog

reply to post by paradiselost333


haha. i wonder if this is legal as well. suddenly i'm reminded of that story a year or two back about the car pile up with no one in the cars. i can't find the article but i remember it. if anyone else can, reply to this post.

This is pretty awesome. The millennium is finally here I guess.

So much awesomeness. I imagine we don't really even have laws in most countries to deal with this yet? So it would be a new precedent.

I think this is exciting and wonderful, provided they thouroughly test this tech, to ensure human and animal lives will not be endangered.

Honestly, I live in Kentucky, and I would trust a robot driver over some of the drunken rednecks and cellphoned twits who inhabit my neighborhood!!

Just think of the possibilities.

I am thinking this could be wonderful for disabled folks. They can send their robot stor to the store, and the workers just fill up the car for the disbled person and it drives back home.

Endless.

Integrating robotic safety features into human driven vehicles is great too, drivers need all the help we can get with the cell phone craze ruining people's ability to drive safely.

Now when we get a text we can push robo drive, take our calls and texts, then go back to driving, knowing the robo drive has us covered!

OK all well and good we have cars that drive themselves, but what's the point?

reply to post by BarmyBilly

Cant you see the benefits? Less accidents, no more drunk drivers, "just operators", falling asleep while driving would all be things of the past...

I could name a bunch more but I think you get my point

hmmmm maybe my post was far too hasty but i don't think i would feel comfortable in a car that drives it self to be honest.

Honda could of released cars that "drove themselves" a few years ago but the lawyers stepped in and put the kibosh on it stating that if one was ever involved in an accident it would finish the company. Can't say about other manufacturers but Honda defo.

Well to cut out litigation they should rename it from car that drives itself to driver car integration technology. Thus the driver still has responsibility.

BMW did something like this years ago, only it was one 3 series, and it drove its self around the Top Gear test track.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by TokiTheDestroyer

LMAO that guy was scared as hell

guess I would be the first few times
if this goes public I see lawsuits galore "malfunction"

Originally posted by Pinke
This is pretty awesome. The millennium is finally here I guess.

So much awesomeness.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
Integrating robotic safety features into human driven vehicles is great too, drivers need all the help we can get with the cell phone craze ruining people's ability to drive safely.

Soon we wont be allowed to drive freely. AWESOME!

The car wont move unless our seatbelts are on. OH BABY!!

It wont allow us to drive over the speed limit, even in emergencies. YES!!

If we smoke or cuss in the car, or whatever other BS laws they want to integrate, a penalty ticket will print out of the dashboard. If we don't refill the ticket printer ink and paper we'll have our licenses revoked. CAPTIVATING!!

It will jam any and all cell phone signals from transmitting into the car, and if sensors detect alcohol in the car the doors will lock until police arrive to arrest you (believe it or not, it IS possible to drive with your first drink or two on the way to your destination for your night out without being drunk or smashing into anyone, and it IS possible to go home later that night without being drunk). AT LAST!!

All while maintaining a GPS log of everything we do, and a transcription of everything we say. ORGASMIC!!

Johnny don't have sex with Suzy in the car on your first date, the police will show up in the remote location you chose to do it in. EXHILARATING!!

And don't have some drinks in the car while sitting in the parking lot before the concert begins, you MUST go in totally sober and buy those $7 cups of crappy keg beer. SWEET!!

Smell sensors won't allow you to drive with substances in the vehicle a tyrannical government has declared "controlled", without you being arrested. CANCER TAKE ME I'M YOURS!!

Driving with fireworks in your car will have you interrogated as a terrorist, all for trying to celebrate the 4th of July. DEATH DEFYING!!

Don't drive to the party, or a SWAT team will show up. THE TIME OF OUR LIVES!!

Don't talk to yourself in the car, or there might be a straight jacket in your future. THRILLS AND CHILLS!!

Don't argue with your spouse in the car, or you'll face domestic abuse charges. ALL HAIL GOOGLE GOD!!

Don't discipline your children when they act up in the car, or they'll be taken away. UTOPIA IS UPON US ALL!!

Don't expect to ever get 'flashed' by a car full of some crazy chicks while driving down the road, as they'll be penalized for sure. GET THOSE DEGENERATES!!

No more mixing drinks in the car when you're at the beach. GOOGLE I WANT TO LICK YOUR CPU!!

No more excuses for why you were late to work. A WORKERS PARADISE!!

If you don't properly maintain a vehicle, the vehicle will sue you in court. SPANK ME I'VE BEEN NAUGHTY!!

Cars won't allow any civilians drive after curfew. WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY!!!!



[Don't get me wrong, I don't even like to go out, and so on. If you want to be treated like a little kid your entire life, or be dominated as a species by the next generation of robots and cyborgs, don't brings us all down with you.]

This is cool! S&f for you Sir! I wanna see one drive down my road!

This is really cool to find out about.
I was aware of the DARPA challenge. So I knew the technology was there for this to happen in its most basic sense. What I would like to know is how the cars read the signals from traffic control devices? I did not see where it mentioned that.

They have driverless vehicles roaming the streets? So what?

I bet the average computer is a better driver than the average driver.

Haven't heard of one of these getting into an accident yet, and probably never will, so long as they're not using Windows Vista as their operating system

Brings new meaning to the term "the computer crashed" now doesn't it?

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
[Don't get me wrong, I don't even like to go out, and so on. If you want to be treated like a little kid your entire life, or be dominated as a species by the next generation of robots and cyborgs, don't brings us all down with you.]

edit on 10-10-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss because: (no reason given)

Eh ... I figure it will be like automatic or stick shift ... if you don't want to buy it they're not going to sell it to you are they?

I seriously doubt the T-1000 is coming to get us cos of google robot cars.

reply to post by Pinke


It would be cool if they called the first commercially available robot driver option the T-1000!

Or I think so any way.

reply to post by RedGolem


Thats a very good question! I know the newer stop lights can send a recieve some type of signal,
I bet stop signs and yield signs etc. , would be be a problem.