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Google Unveils New Self-Driving Car Prototype
colinneagle writes In May, Google released a teaser image showing a mock-up of the autonomous vehicle it planned to build. Today, the company followed up with an image showing the finished product. Google says the first edition of its self-made self-driving car will feature "temporary manual controls as needed while we continue to test and learn." When Google introduced its prototype back in May, the company claimed its self-driving cars "won't have a steering wheel, accelerator pad, or brake pedal because they don't need them." Apparently, it still has yet to reach that point. The development is an important step forward for Google's driverless car efforts, which have been deemed impractical by many of late. Last year, the Financial Times reported that Google had difficulty finding manufacturing partners that would build vehicles featuring the self-driving capabilities used in its Prius. In that light, maybe Google's willingness to build its own hardware just to get the technology on the road means that its self-driving car team knows something the rest of the industry doesn't."
The Oatmeal posted a review of the car and state of Google's technology in general:
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/goo...
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Actually, the controls were added because of a California state law requirement for them, not because Goggle thought they were necessary...
Why Google? WHY? Why does every manufacturer of cutting edge vehicles, like EVs, have to make them so damned ugly? Why can't we get a car flavored car?
So if I buy a production Google car without controls, and the vehicle runs off the road and kills 20 kids in a playground, who is at fault?
A. Me (for owning it)?
B. Google (for shoddy programming)?
C. The state (for allowing driverless cars)?
D. The Kids (because they should have gotten out of the way)?
Related question - do I need to carry insurance to use one of these cars as I am not driving, I'm merely riding?
Essentially, what is the model for this type of vehicle - am I the 'driver', or am I 'passenger' (like on a bus or taxi)?
If they can sort this out maybe I'll buy one someday.
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Marissa Mayer's 2011 concept car sketch for BMW vs. Google's 2014 built vehicle
The Oatmeal review I linked (looks like as first post) includes a discussion of a similar scenario, which the car handled better than many people would.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
On my way to lunch today I was driving on a residential street, and the gas company had the road dug up. There was a guy there with a 'slow' sign indicating that the 'road' was now a few pieces of plywood on someones lawn. How do you prepare for something like that?
Realistically, if the car has been driving on auto with the passangers not paying constant attention (in which case, why do you have the auto controls? and people are really bad at paying constant attention to something that they can't control), do you really think that having someone grab for the wheel in an emergancy is going to do more good than harm? the big red panic button to stop the car is about all that is meanignful in any case.
The situation they require manual controls for is when you drive into a blizzard/flood, and the car drives until it's unsafe to stop and unsafe to continue. When you give the computer the choice between two bad things, something bad will happen. The regulators would rather that bad choice be in the hands of a human, when the "fix" is to work out as many "unsafe to continue, unsafe to stop" conditions, and improve stopping before them. It's not about the instant hand-over, but the impossible situation.
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'Unfortunately', we also have a responsibility to ensure the safety of others, not just ourselves. When you drive your car, it's not just your life on the line.
For that very reason, as soon as self-driving cars reach a critical point of safety over normal drivers (perhaps at least 25% lives saved?), it's a GOOD idea to implement it ASAP. I like controlling cars too, but the roads are not for joyrides.
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The somewhat clever answer would be that the computer would have already contacted Google Maps and been rerouted around a problematic area. When the computer is making the route instead of a far less knowledgeable driver, it should be an easy thing to require all roadwork to be submitted to a central database that would inform all routing operations. In other words, this scenario is anachronistic - in the future, the routing accounts for all those weird situations.
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Just last week I encountered a cop with a lighted baton who was directing traffic from the side of the road. He would stop traffic, walk to the middle of the road while motioning people across the road with his baton, then walk off the road while waving the baton *behind his back* to signal "go ahead".
Does the self-driving car recognize this sort of thing?
Will it drive when there's snow on the ground?
I think I'd keep the steering wheel and manual control - just in case..
Sure, machine logic has strange seemingly obvious gaps. The pedestrian trying to cross though was spot on, and half of humans would just pull out without seeing him at all.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.