Google Cars Drive Themselves, In Traffic

An anonymous reader noted that "At the TED 2011 conference this week, Google has been giving extremely rare demos of its self-driving cars. TED attendees have even been allowed to travel inside them, on a closed course. The car is a project of Google, which has been working in secret but in plain view 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."

Re:On US 101? Irresponsible

[BrightSpark]

Have you seen the lunatics out there? Give me a robot any day! We are given a licence (one test only) in our youth and then out you go, rain, hail or shine, fit or unfit, tired or not, drunk or senile or both. That's ignoring the meatheads who want to deliberately drive dangerously and those not paying attention on a mobile phone texting "RORL" (roll off road laughing). I see your point but lets move on.

Can't wait ...

[antdude]

I can't drive due to my disabilities. This would be useful. Of course, it has to be bug free (OK almost). It probably won't be ready until after I am dead though. I always wanted KITT type of car! :(

2nd order effects

[hajus]

The 2nd order effects from this are going to be interesting. If you only have robot drivers (and you will, cause with lower accident rates, you'll have lower insurance rates if you always let the computer drive), you won't need visible signs or traffic lights. How would this affect pedestrian crossings? Would pedestrians feel irrationally unsafe crossing a road with robot drivers on it? Will we remove speed limits as computer reaction and cognitive ability gets faster?

Re:awful, awful awful awful

[gr3y]

People who think the purpose of the left lane is to drive the exact same speed as the car to your right so other drivers are tempted to perform dangerous maneuvers just to get around your inconsiderate punk ass, rather than submit to your roadblock

Spoken like someone who thinks the purpose of the left lane is to allow someone to exceed the legal speed limit. The left lane is for passing traffic not traveling the legal speed limit.

Someone traveling the legal speed limit is not an obstacle, they are a responsible, law-abiding citizen. What lane they are in is irrelevant, since there is no legal justification for exceeding the legal speed limit to pass them.

The root cause of the problem you cite is poor impulse control. There is no compelling reason for society to tolerate an inability to exercise self restraint and drive the legal speed limit. It does not matter if you agree that this is true because it is true; it is self-evident from even the most casual appraisal of the facts.

Re:2nd order effects

[NicknamesAreStupid]

Cabbies, bus drivers, truckers -- all expensive and unnecessary with automated autos (is that redundant or what?). Automated taxis would replace mass transit at a fraction of the cost, and it would become pointless for many people to even own a car when they could summons one at a small charge. The social and business effects would actually be 1st order. The blowback will be F5.