[nabs-l] [stylist] Google tests cars that can steer without drivers

[Danielle Montour]

Hey this is cool! Thanks! I'm in the same boat as you on the car 
without steering thing.  That would be interesting if this 
experiment yielded good results.

Danielle

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing 
list'"<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>, "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" 
<stylist at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:51:42 -0400
Subject: [stylist] Google tests cars that can steer without 
drivers

Ah, look at this?  For all the nay-sayers like myself who think 
cars that
drive themselves are a thing of pipe dreams.  Maybe a 
reconsideration is in
order, but only just maybe.--Joe

Google tests cars that can steer without drivers

Video

Logitech's De Luca Says Google `Not Replacing' Cable TV: Video
Oct.  7 (Bloomberg) -- Guerrino De Luca, chairman of Logitech 
International
SA, talks about the outlook for Google Inc.'s TV service, which 
will debut
this month on Sony Corp.  and Logitech devices.  De Luca talks 
with Matt
Miller and Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." 
(Source:
Bloomberg)
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By DANIEL WAGNER
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 10, 2010; 6:23 PM

WASHINGTON -- Google Inc.  is road-testing cars that steer, stop 
and start
without a human driver, the company says.

This Story
Google tests cars that can steer without drivers
Munster Says Google, Apple in `First Inning' of TV Clash: Video
Logitech's De Luca Says Google `Not Replacing' Cable TV: Video
The goal is to "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's 
time and
reduce carbon emissions" through ride sharing and "the new 
'highway trains
of tomorrow,'" project leader Sebastian Thrun wrote Saturday on 
Google's
corporate blog.

The cars are never unmanned, Thrun wrote.  He said a backup 
driver is always
behind the wheel to monitor the software.

It's not the first signal that Google wants to change how people 
get from
place to place.  In a speech Sept.  29 at the TechCrunch 
"Disrupt" conference,
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "your car should drive itself.  It 
just makes
sense."

"It's a bug that cars were invented before computers," Schmidt 
said.

The cars have traveled a total of 140,000 miles on major 
California roads
without much human intervention, according to Google's corporate 
blog.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based technology giant has sent seven 
test cars a
total of 1,000 miles without a human touching the controls at 
all, the New
York Times reported.  The newspaper published a report on the 
cars earlier
Sunday.

The cars know speed limits, traffic patterns and road maps, 
Thrun's posting
says.  They use video cameras, radar sensors and lasers to detect 
other cars.


Driving between Northern California and Southern California, the 
cars have
navigated San Francisco's curvy Lombard Street, Los Angeles' 
Hollywood
Boulevard and the cliff-hugging Pacific Coast Highway, the blog 
says.

Engineers consider the cars safer because they react more quickly 
than
humans, the New York Times said.  It said Google has not revealed 
how it
hopes to profit from the research.

The company is flush with cash, though, and pushing numerous 
projects such
as the cars that are unrelated to its core business, said Rob 
Enderle,
principal analyst with the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif.

"The word 'focus' is a word Google has never learned," Enderle 
said,
pointing to projects involving electricity distribution, vehicle 
design and
artificial intelligence.  He said cars that can drive themselves 
would allow
commuters more time to surf the web, something Google would 
encourage.

Still, Enderle said, industry leaders such as Volkswagen and 
Intel Corp.  are
working on similar technology.  He said "driverless" vehicles 
will make
computers more like the robots imagined in the 1920s, rather than 
the
tabletop data processors we use today.

The blog says the technology is being developed by scientists who 
were
involved in an earlier set of unmanned car races organized by the
government's Defense Advance Research Projects Agency.

----

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed 
to this
report.


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