Google Secretly Tests Autonomous Cars In Traffic 561
Hugh Pickens writes "Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the Internet has. Now the NY Times reports that Google has been working in secret on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver. With someone behind the wheel to take control if something went awry and a technician in the passenger seat to monitor the navigation system, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control. One even drove itself down Lombard Street in San Francisco, one of the steepest and curviest streets in the nation. The only accident, engineers said, was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light."
Update: 10/09 22:37 GMT by T : Reader harrymcc points out that the dream of self-driving cars is nothing new: "Both Popular Science and Popular Mechanics have regularly reported on such experiments; I rounded up some examples dating as far back as 1933."
The Official Blog (Score:5, Informative)
Not secretly, (Score:1, Informative)
just quietly. Some of the other people working on it (e.g. Sebastian Thrun) have been working on this for a while, even competing in the DARPA Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge.
Parts inside (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/10/10/us/10google3.html [nytimes.com]
1) http://www.applanix.com/products.html [applanix.com]
2) http://www.velodyne.com/lidar/lidar.aspx [velodyne.com]
4) http://www.topconpositioning.com/ [topconpositioning.com]
7) http://www.netgear.com/ [netgear.com]
Re:I wold love a car that drives itself... (Score:5, Informative)
Truly a cunning retort.
MADD are assholes because they don't actually care about stopping drunk driving anymore. They care about stopping drinking. As stated by their disillusioned founder Candy Lightner, they've become neo-prohibitionists.
The first adopters of these will be... (Score:4, Informative)
... long-haul trucking. A robo-truck could drive 24-7, stopping only for fuel and loading/unloading, and would never have an accident due to driver drowsiness or speeding to meet a deadline.
If a robo-driver costs, say, $100,000, it would pay for itself in a few years in avoided driver pay alone.
Re:Rules of the Road (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Think of the jobs (Score:3, Informative)
... and not for any job reasons! Because politicians think people can't be trusted to handle such an immensely dangerous item as motor fuel without proper training and certification!
Re:I wold love a car that drives itself... (Score:1, Informative)
I like the article, and it makes some good points. However, be sure to take everything with a grain of salt. According to the article, California gave up its state constitution....which is not exactly true.
Re:Hours wasted in traffic (Score:3, Informative)
expensive (Score:1, Informative)
For poor people like me, the status quo where I have access to decent CHEAP 1000$ish non-automated used cars is probably better than a system where I have to buy some 50,000$+ automated car. If some sort of required automated-car system was suddenly put in place, it'd take decades for used automated cars to reach a lower price value and even then they might still be too expensive.
Re:I wold love a car that drives itself... (Score:3, Informative)
Bullshit like that dilutes the meaning of actual DUI's, and MADD fully supports it.
Re:Rules of the Road (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, but you're a self-absorbed whackjob.
A person who doesn't want a family is immature or irresponsible? I mean really? You know what I find to be irresponsible? Some notion that a person needs to get married and have children because some lunatic on the Internet says there is a societal benefit to it. I'm sure those kids will grow up in a fantastic loving home what with their parents wishing they were in any situation other than that one. It seems like a fantastic environment to raise kids.
Not owning a home is a result of lacking willpower against compulsion? How about the possibility that they find owning some big house on some big lot to be a wasteful use of resources (and I'm not talking about their money). How about them feeling that they don't need 3000 square feet of space to knock around in on their own, since they have yet to get married and have children to please you?
Maybe they mooch off of people with cars; unlike you, I'm not stupid enough to pant entire categories of people with the same brush. But there's also the possibility that they simply take public transportation or walk places. Tasks which benefit them monetarily and in terms of their own health, benefit society by not contributing unnecessary pollution to the air or crowding to the streets and even benefit businesses by not making parking some huge requirement and by freeing up more money for them to spend on loft apartments and $300 shirts. But I'm sure to you they're just being unfair to all the used car salesman and mechanics and gas station owners out there by not paying their fair share into those peoples' wallets. Those irresponsible kids.
In short? I can tell you're not young by your user ID, but I see you still haven't managed to grow up either. Your idea of a perfect way to live your life is not everybody's idea, nor does it mean it is the right idea just because you happen to be the one who possesses it. So do us all a favor and shut the fuck up. Go about your business your way and everybody else will go about their business their way. Nobody needs your smug sense of superiority, least of all you.
TU Braunschweig (Score:4, Informative)
Why nobody is talking about TU Braunschweig's efforts [engadget.com] in this matter? Hell, we even have a video from them, drop Google's "secretly".
Re:TU Braunschweig (Score:2, Informative)
Well, apart from the fact that you're missing the "Google factor" (it's from Google!), I'd say you also have to learn how to make an interesting video. That video bored me enough that I didn't completely watch it. It didn't even have any explanations!