[Nfbf-l] Google's driverless cars designed to exceed speed limit

[Alan Dicey]

Dear Friends,
Well, we are watching it happen!
What we thought of as Science Fiction even just 10 years ago, will be a 
reality in our lifetime!
Yes, We the Blind will be able to get into a car and go where we want to, 
without the assistance of others!
Here is a great article which points out how fast this technology is moving!
With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida

Google's driverless cars designed to exceed speed limit
By Joe Miller
 Technology Reporter
(Photo) Google driverless car
Google has tested its technology in modified cars
Google's self-driving cars are programmed to exceed speed limits by up to 10 
mph (16km/h), according to the project's lead software engineer.

Dmitri Dolgov told Reuters that when surrounding vehicles were breaking the 
speed limit, going more slowly could actually present a danger, and the 
Google car would accelerate to keep up.

Google's driverless prototypes have been widely tested on roads in the US.

The UK will allow driverless cars on public roads from 2015.

Google first announced its driverless car division in 2010, and has been 
testing its technology in modified cars built by other manufacturers.

The cars have travelled on more than 300,000 miles of open road, mostly in 
California.

In May, the US tech firm said it would start building its own self-driving 
cars.

The bubble-shaped vehicles will seat two people, propulsion will be 
electric, and to begin with they will be limited to 25mph (40km/h) to help 
ensure safety.

In July, the UK government announced that driverless cars will be allowed on 
public roads from January next year.

In addition, ministers ordered a review of the UK's road regulations to 
provide appropriate guidelines.

This will cover the need for self-drive vehicles to comply with safety and 
traffic laws, and involve changes to the Highway Code, which applies to 
England, Scotland and Wales.

Commenting on Google self-drive cars' ability to exceed the speed limit, a 
Department for Transport spokesman said: "There are no plans to change speed 
limits, which will still apply to driverless cars".

In a separate development on Monday, the White House said it wanted all cars 
and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent 
collisions.

Radio signals emitted by the vehicles would allow them to "talk" to each 
other, and alert drivers to potential accidents.

How do driverless cars work?

Nissan Autonomous Drive Technology Nissan is one of many companies 
developing self-drive vehicles
The label "driverless vehicle" actually covers a lot of different concepts.

Indeed, the cruise control, automatic braking, anti-lane drift and 
self-parking functions already built into many vehicles offer a certain 
degree of autonomy.

But the term is generally used to refer to vehicles that take charge of 
steering, accelerating, indicating and braking during most if not all of a 
journey between two points, much in the same way aeroplanes can be set to 
autopilot.

Unlike the skies, however, the roads are much more crowded, and a range of 
technologies is being developed to tackle the problem.

One of the leading innovations is Lidar (light detection and ranging), a 
system that measures how lasers bounce off reflective surfaces to capture 
information about millions of small points surrounding the vehicle every 
second. The technology is already used to create the online maps used by 
Google and Nokia.

Another complementary technique is "computer vision" - the use of software 
to make sense of 360-degree images captured by cameras attached to the 
vehicle, which can warn of pedestrians, cyclists, roadworks and other 
objects that might be in the vehicle's path.

Autonomous vehicles can also make use of global-positioning system (GPS) 
location data from satellites, radar, ultrasonic sensors to detect objects 
close to the car and further sensors to accurately measure the vehicle's 
orientation and the rotation of its wheels, to help it understand its exact 
location.

The debate now is whether to allow cars, like the prototype unveiled by 
Google in May, to abandon controls including a steering wheel and pedals and 
rely on the vehicle's computer.

Or whether, instead, to allow the machine to drive, but insist a passenger 
be ready to wrest back control at a moment's notice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28851996#
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