[nfb-talk] The Google Car, what do you think?

[Sherri]

I really think this is more what we are looking for. This is a car "anyone" could "drive". Google has lots of resources. Why don't we jump on their bandwagon?

Sherri

Google is testing cars that drive themselves  Google announced Sunday 
   that it has developed cars that drive themselves
automatically in traffic, and that it has been testing them on the
streets of California for months. It might seem like an unusual project 
for Google, but it  could actually have big benefits.
 We're not just talking about cars running Google Android.
This is the stuff of science fiction. The only accident that has
occurred so far: One of the cars was rear-ended by a driver at a stop
light. Human error!

The vehicles have been tested on 140,000 miles of California road, from 
Silicon Valley to Santa Monica.

Each car is manned during the tests. One person sits in the driver's 
seat, ready to take control of the vehicle instantly by grabbing the 
wheel or touch the brake should something go wrong with the system. The person in the 
passenger's seat is an engineer who monitors the software operations on a 
computer.

Google (Google) hired engineers who previously participated in 
competitions and races involving automated cars -- important turning 
points in the development of the technology, which has been coming into its own since around 2005 according to The New York Times.

If your first concern is one of safety, Google would argue that you're 
going about it all wrong.

Safety is one of the the project's purposes. Google believes that the 
technology could nearly half the number of automobile-related deaths 
because computers are supposedly
better  at driving than humans in the right circumstances.

There are other hypothetical pluses, too. The vehicles' instant reaction 
time and 360-degree awareness would allow them to drive closer together 
on the highway than humans can, reducing traffic congestion. They could be more 
careful when operating the gas, reducing fuel consumption.

But the biggest benefit for Google would be the hour or so of daily 
commute time the car owner would save. Instead of driving, he or she 
could either be productive or entertained in the vehicle, doing work on a wireless 
Internet (Internet) connection or watching television.

Google doesn't say it explicitly, but TechCrunch was
quick to note that this time could be spent using Google products and absorbing 
 Google-run advertising.

The most optimistic projections put this technology at least eight years 
away from market, though. Legal hassles are among the myriad problems; 
all of the current traffic laws assume that a human driver is present in the vehicle