I guess if computers can land planes they can drive cars. Still, I find it a little unnerving for computers to be driving cars on the highway, even if they do have a human in the driver’s seat in case they need to intervene. The safety record appears to be pretty good, though.
…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. The only accident, engineers said, was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.
I’ve seen the new Mercedes commercials where the computer has taken over for the human driver to help them avoid an accident. I guess that kind of hybrid-driving is going to be what we see first. Fully computerized drivers could pretty much eliminate the drunk driving problem, as well as the texting-while-driving problem. At least, it would solve those problems except in the rare cases where a human needs to intervene.
How do you feel about this new technology?
