Google’s self-driven cars will soon be appearing on Nevada roads after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles approved on Monday the United States' first autonomous vehicle license.
The move came after officials rode along on drives on highways, in Carson City neighborhoods and along the famous Las Vegas Strip, the Nevada DMV said in a statement.
The Nevada legislature last year authorized self-driven cars for the state’s roads, the first such law in the United States. That law went into effect on March 1, 2012.
Google’s self-driven cars rely on video cameras, radar sensors, lasers, and a database of information collected from manually driven cars to help navigate, according to the company.
The DMV licensed a Toyota Prius that Google modified with its experimental driver-less technology, developed by Stanford professor and Google Vice President Sebastian Thrun.
Google’s self-driving cars have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and driven along the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway, according to the company.
Autonomous vehicles are the “car of the future,” Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow said in a statement. The state also has plans to eventually license autonomous vehicles owned by the members of the public, the DMV said.
Legislation to regulate autonomous cars is being considered in other states, including Google’s home state of California.
“The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error. Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analyzing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely,” California state Senator Alex Padilla said in March when he introduced that state’s autonomous car legislation.
Other car companies are also seeking self-driven car licenses in Nevada, the DMV said.
Warning: Some swearing in the video below
Looks like the cars in the movie Demolition Man weren't so far fetched after all.
In other news, Google has announced the creation of it's "Skynet" program.
Last edited by Jacks; 05-08-2012 at 02:26 PM.
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I think it's neat, but I'm worried this will end up being a disaster. IMO, nothing can really replace human judgement.
Are these cars going to be able to notice someone running a red light before you drive into the intersection when the light turns green? Will they detect if a deer, or other animal, runs out from the ditch? Will it reailze you're coming up to an icy section of the road?
Obviously some of that responsibility will fall in the hands of the driver, but I have a feeling there will be a lot of people filing lawsuits every time a self-driving car gets in an accident.
Are these cars going to be able to notice someone running a red light before you drive into the intersection when the light turns green? Will they detect if a deer, or other animal, runs out from the ditch? Will it reailze you're coming up to an icy section of the road?
Apparently with its system of laser and radar it can detect a potential collision faster than a human can react. I'm guessing that it might have problem with winter driving, that might be why they are starting out in Nevada where the weather is pretty predictable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rd_aaron
I have a feeling there will be a lot of people filing lawsuits every time a self-driving car gets in an accident.
They do that now.
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I'm wondering if they'll one day be able to drive without you. Traffic would become a nightmare possibly. Imagine everyone downtown getting their car to drive them to work and drop them off and drive themselves home.
I'd sleep in my car. Or eat, or read, or talk on the phone, or drink booze, or, or. . . .
How fun would it be to eff around with one of them if you're driving a normal car. If the car wanted to change lanes and slowed down, so you did the same, then sped up, hahahaha, hilarity would ensue.
Doubt their target market for this is 30-something able-bodied dudes.
Eventually it won't matter what people want. Once self-driving cars are shown to be significantly safer than human drivers, the only sensible thing to be done is to outlaw human drivers (except in very narrow circumstances).
The only question is how to deal with liability at that point. Certainly Google engineers or car companies won't want to shoulder the liability for tens of millions of cars. I wonder if the sensible thing to do would be for the government to essentially declare accidents "no fault" and administer some sort of insurance that all drivers pay into.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Obviously there are a lot of steps between here and there.
On a side note, I've always wondered how the driving records of people who say they "love driving" compare with other groups of drivers.
Eventually it won't matter what people want. Once self-driving cars are shown to be significantly safer than human drivers, the only sensible thing to be done is to outlaw human drivers (except in very narrow circumstances).
The only question is how to deal with liability at that point. Certainly Google engineers or car companies won't want to shoulder the liability for tens of millions of cars. I wonder if the sensible thing to do would be for the government to essentially declare accidents "no fault" and administer some sort of insurance that all drivers pay into.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Obviously there are a lot of steps between here and there.
On a side note, I've always wondered how the driving records of people who say they "love driving" compare with other groups of drivers.
I don't think any government (in the first world anyways) would have the balls to make it illegal for people to drive. I don't see that law ever flying with the general public, not in my lifetime anyways.
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I think it's neat, but I'm worried this will end up being a disaster. IMO, nothing can really replace human judgement.
Are these cars going to be able to notice someone running a red light before you drive into the intersection when the light turns green? Will they detect if a deer, or other animal, runs out from the ditch? Will it reailze you're coming up to an icy section of the road?
Obviously some of that responsibility will fall in the hands of the driver, but I have a feeling there will be a lot of people filing lawsuits every time a self-driving car gets in an accident.
It won't better in every case, but I think it would be better in enough cases that when the system is perfected, to the point where we allow the mass public to purchase them at least, the overall accident numbers will be clearly better.
Anything to do with distracted driving? Eliminated.
Poor reaction time causing accidents? Eliminated.
Accidents due to other driver error, not eliminated obviously, but if everyone was driving one of these cars, would there be enough driver error from other vehicles that we would see accidents? I doubt it.
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They'd have to pry my steering wheel out of my cold dead hands.
I don't know if I'll ever get this sentiment.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate driving but the charm of getting my license and daily driving wore off many years ago. I can think of any number of things I would rather be doing than driving to work/mall/extended road trip/etc. If the car would drive for me I would let it.
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I don't think any government (in the first world anyways) would have the balls to make it illegal for people to drive. I don't see that law ever flying with the general public, not in my lifetime anyways.
They may not outlaw it, but with all the data that gets collected by the autonomous cars it might be really easy to assign fault to the car with the driver. At some point if it proves to be quite a bit safer the insurance companies will just start to reflect that in the rates for normal cars and most people will switch.
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Can you imagine how pissed off a lot of people would be behind a self driving car? They'll be back seat driving to a computer, and yelling at the car to pass other cars on the road. I can see road rage spiking quite a bit.
In theory, if these cars worked exactly like it should, then it would be harder to get into accidents if I'm sharing a road with them since they'll sense my car before impact, and thus would be able to avoid contact. I'd be cutting these things off let and right, and the guy in his self driving car would be pretty pissed, but wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
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Can you imagine how pissed off a lot of people would be behind a self driving car? They'll be back seat driving to a computer, and yelling at the car to pass other cars on the road. I can see road rage spiking quite a bit.
In theory, if these cars worked exactly like it should, then it would be harder to get into accidents if I'm sharing a road with them since they'll sense my car before impact, and thus would be able to avoid contact. I'd be cutting these things off let and right, and the guy in his self driving car would be pretty pissed, but wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
you might as well be flipping them off at the same time too. awesome.
I love to drive but can you imagine how much better rush hour would flow? If someone touches their brakes on Deerfoot at 4:30pm it starts a chain reaction, 1/2 an hour later traffic is still slowing down at that spot. Then there is an accident and every car slows down to take a look, if the car was driving itself people could rubber neck without the usual delays
The drive to Edmonton is boring as hell, who wouldn't rather sit back and watch a movie?
Eventually it won't matter what people want. Once self-driving cars are shown to be significantly safer than human drivers, the only sensible thing to be done is to outlaw human drivers (except in very narrow circumstances).
The only question is how to deal with liability at that point. Certainly Google engineers or car companies won't want to shoulder the liability for tens of millions of cars. I wonder if the sensible thing to do would be for the government to essentially declare accidents "no fault" and administer some sort of insurance that all drivers pay into.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Obviously there are a lot of steps between here and there.
On a side note, I've always wondered how the driving records of people who say they "love driving" compare with other groups of drivers.
That's pretty much not how the world works. You just made like 10 ridiculous predictions.
Apparently with its system of laser and radar it can detect a potential collision faster than a human can react. I'm guessing that it might have problem with winter driving, that might be why they are starting out in Nevada where the weather is pretty predictable.
If you take out the delay of human reaction, it could definitely help reduce collisions. Instead of having about a second between reaction and actually pressing the brake, you're looking at microseconds. A second quicker response could save you about 14 meters of stopping distance if you're travelling at 50 km/h.
I just think there are too many variables in programming something like this to be completely self-automated. I think somewhere in between completely manual and completely automated is possible but I have trouble believing it would be safe for a legally blind person (as per the video in the OP) to be able to jump in the car every morning and let it do everything. Maybe it would be fine 99.9% of the time, but that 0.1% of the time might not end so pleasantly.
Google self-driving car gets green light in Nevada
