Quote:
Originally Posted by combustiblefuel
Google has had these Retro fitted S.U.V 's on the roads for a while . The Vehicle's have logged over 40,000 miles on the roadways and highways with out one incident or citation.
|
Well, there was no mention of whether this was achieved with or without the human occupant taking controls.
I find it hard to believe that the vehicles never encountered a situation such as the ones mentioned before, that required the passenger to intervene to prevent an accident from a jaywalker or another car doing something stupid.
The car on autopilot and getting bailed out to prevent an accidents isn't the same as the car operating completely autonomously and not getting into an accident. And if the occupant has to be as alert as if they were driving the vehicle (much like, say a c-train conductor), what's the point? It's cool, but if I can't be doing the crossword puzzle while I am being driven to work, it seems a bit silly. The only benefit would be the system monitoring and preventing the driver from making an error in judgement when changing lanes or possibly blowing through a red light.