[ExI] Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic

[BillK]

October 9, 2010

  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Anyone driving the twists of Highway 1
between San Francisco and Los Angeles recently may have glimpsed a
Toyota Prius with a curious funnel-like cylinder on the roof. Harder
to notice was that the person at the wheel was not actually driving.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html>

The car is a project of Google, which has been working in secret but
in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using
artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car
and mimic the decisions made by a human driver.

With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes awry
and a technician in the passenger seat to monitor the navigation
system, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human
intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human
control. One even drove itself down Lombard Street in San Francisco,
one of the steepest and curviest streets in the nation.

More info:
<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html>

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I liked the sentence:
The car can be programmed for different driving personalities — from
cautious, in which it is more likely to yield to another car, to
aggressive, where it is more likely to go first.

Made me wonder what will happen when all the rednecks get their cars
tuned up to 'very very aggressive' and 'f**k the speed limits'.   :)

But still, a remarkable development.


BillK