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California DMV Told Google Cars Still Need Steering Wheels
cartechboy writes Google showed us what it feels is the car of the future. It drives itself, it doesn't have a gas or brake pedal, and there's no steering wheel. But that last one might be an issue. Back in May California's Department of Motor Vehicles published safety guidelines aimed at manufacturers of self-driving vehicles. After seeing Google's self-driving car vision, the California DMV has told the company it needs to add all those things back to their traditional locations so that occupants can take "immediate physical control" of the vehicle if necessary. Don't for a second think this is a major setback for Google, as the prototypes unveiled weren't even close to production ready. While the DMV may loosen some of these restrictions in the future as well all become more comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles, there's no question when it comes down to the safety of those on the road.
If there's one lesson I learned from Star Trek it's that you always, ALWAYS, include a manual override.
Tow truck.
That is very short term thinking. 15 years after driverless cars are released your going to have a whole generation of people who never learned to drive a car. People who get the license and then forget everything because they haven't touched the wheel in 10 years. There is not going to be anyone quilified to drive a car. You will just have millions of amatuers with a skill level of a 16 year old.
The futurist in me envisions this occurring about 5 years after the bloodless, peaceful transition to an economy where robots do all the work.
The futurist in me is an exceedingly sardonic asshole, if you haven't picked that up already.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Some years ago I read an article about automatic control of airplanes which (somewhat facetiously) predicted that in the future airplanes would have one pilot and a dog. The dog's job would be to keep the pilot from touching the controls.
Humans are very erratic. Machines are predictable.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?