I’ve driven i-280 far too many times in my days as a commuter. The beautiful scenery on that 23 mile stretch is no longer interesting to me. The drive has become a blur. It’s almost scary, I’ll get to school, or back home, and think, “how did I get here?” But sometimes something memorable happens (hopefully not an accident). One of the coolest things I’ve encountered was this white SUV with this funny-looking contraption that spun a camera overhead. It had “Google self-driving car” on its side.
Whoa... is that legal? I stuck with it for a bit. Its speed was perfectly steady, and it stayed exactly in the middle of the lane. I got the urge to tailgate it or cut it off to see how it’d react (obviously I didn’t do anything of the sort, drive your death-boxes safely, people!).
I spent the rest of the drive pondering: are autonomous cars the future? Should we really put our lives directly in the hands of computers?
Yes. And yes.
The idea is scary at first, but when you look at the data, there’s no question that cars controlled by AI is the way to go. Google’s self-driving cars record how sharply they break and accelerate. They also keep track of following-distance. Based on this data, at a robotics conference in Santa Clara (RoboBusiness 2013), Chris Urmson said, “We’re spending less time in near-collision states. Our car is driving more smoothly and more safely than our trained professional drivers.” (MIT Technology Review). This article from the Tampa Bay Times says that one of Google’s cars has already driven 300,000 miles with no incidents. The Wall Street Journal says, “At this month's Frankfurt auto show, mega-auto supplier Continental announced a partnership with IBM to help bring autonomous vehicles to market, with "zero accidents" as a possible result. Volvo has promised to injury-proof its cars by 2020.”
I’m looking forward to it.
Hi Andres.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good post. It looks like everyone talks about the Google self-driving car in their posts. Anyway, I agree with you that it is painful to commute on a very long highway multiple times. With the Google self-driving car, it can take care of your driving automatically. However, I do not see how artificial intelligence was developed in the Google self-driving car and was benefited for future drivers. I wish there was more information about that.
One suggestion for your post was to edit your grammar/sentence structure errors. When I read it, there were a lot of sentence fragments. That’s a big deal. Also, I would rather update a list of references of the articles and the photo so that every reader would know where you found your resources.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Andres, you have interesting post of artificial intelligence. I have been reading about Google’s self-driving cars myself. They seem really interesting and I am also aware that companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have also been working on their own version. I however dislike the idea of a self-driving car. I am someone who enjoys driving and I do not like the idea of a computer doing it for me. That being said it is still amazing that technology can do these days. It is like something out of science fiction.
ReplyDeleteHey Andres!
ReplyDeleteI had a great time reading your post. It was very informative and I love how prominent your voice is throughout your writing. Your intro is awesome and I can totally relate. I drive I-280 everyday as well and I don’t know what beautiful scenery you’re referring to. All I see is road, traffic, and more road haha. I’ll look around the next time I drive on it. I honestly cannot wait for self-driving cars!
Overall, great job! I really enjoyed reading your post.
Hello there Andres, how do we do? This is I think the second time I comment on your blog. I hear your voice in this post very much. I can really get the sense of who you are. I hear you, the self-driving car is the next big thing. Imagine how many car accidents we can reduce by letting the computers drive. Humans should do what only humans can do.
ReplyDeleteHi Andres,
ReplyDeleteNice post! I also read some articles and watched some videos about Google self-driving cars before, which was shocking me a lot. The accuracy and safety the cars provides make me feel that sitting inside the car without a little bit worry. I can't wait the moment I am sitting in this kind of car to have a long distance trip.
Hello Andres,
ReplyDeleteWow! . I have also seen the google car earlier but i did not no how it works. Thank you for sharing such a nice description. Google is showing a new way for the driver less car. In future, it might me possible that we can see all the cars without driver. That will help to avoid the accident. After reading this post, I was very curious how actually Google's driver less car works and I found very good video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXylqtEQ0tk