http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/technology/googles-autonomous-vehicles-draw-skepticism-at-legal-symposium.html?_r=1&ref=technology
"As Google has demonstrated, computerized systems that replace human drivers are now largely workable and could greatly limit human error, which causes most of the 33,000 deaths and 1.2 million injuries that now occur each year on the nation’s roads."
It seems that the invention of technology has placed a giant step forward again. Apparently, these autonomous cars have been around for quite a while. I'm not sure about anybody else but I have neither seen nor heard about them before since reading this article.
Many questions are raised about these robotic cars, ranging from legal liability to car insurance to street regulations. According to Google, it seems that these cars are safe for everyone to use and may even decrease the death and injury statistics from car accidents.
"Several people with knowledge of the company’s plans said that Google’s lobbying for state laws to permit autonomous driving indicated that it hoped to introduce such vehicles soon — driverless delivery vans or taxis, as early as 2013 or 2014."
Although Google is only working on this introduction in California, I'm sure that if it is successful, it won't be too long before it will reach over to the East Coast. Get ready to hail some driverless cabs in Manhattan in the near future!
This sounds great like a great plan! But what keeps me wondering is what would happen when the first autonomous vehicle gets into an accident with another person and causes fatalities. Who is to blame? The owner of the car or the company that manufactures it?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds crazy! It's definitely an idea that sounds like it seems too futuristic or science fictional but if it is perfected it is possible to become a more positive attribute to decreasing accidents.
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