Monday, October 18, 2010

Google Developing Self-Piloted Cars



http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Developing+SelfPiloted+Cars/article19846.htm

Google Developing Self-Piloted Cars
Mark Kurlyandchik - October 11, 2010

A New York Times report has outlined the details of a secret Google project to truly put the "auto" in automobile. The Mountainview, California-based tech company has tested seven cars that have driven without the aid of a human for 1,000 miles, and more than 140,000 miles with minimal human intervention.

The project was created by Google engineer and co-inventor of Google's Street View, Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 2005, Thrun led a team from the university to win a $2 million Pentagon prize for designing the Stanley robot car, which drove autonomously for more than 132 miles.

For the current project, Google outfitted six Toyota Priuses and an Audi TT with advanced mapping technology and artificial intelligence software that can sense objects near the car and mimic human driver decisions. A passenger has been present to make minor adjustments, like when a bicyclist ran a red light during a recent test drive.

Google's motivation for the project, its engineers say, is to make the roads safer. "Robot drivers react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy or intoxicated, the engineers argue," NYT noted. Autonomous cars could double the capacity of our current roads by allowing them to be driven closer together, and, because of the decreased likelihood of a crash, could be made out of lighter materials, translating to better fuel efficiency.

The only reported crash, engineers said, was when one of the autonomous cars was rear-ended while stopped at a red light. Otherwise, one of the cars even drove itself down Lombard Street in San Francisco, what NYT calls "one of the steepest and curviest streets in the nation." The cars can be programmed with different driving personalities -- "cautious" is more defensive, while "aggressive" is, well, more aggressive.

Google has 15 engineers working on the project, as well as at least a dozen people with clean driving records hired to sit in the driver's seat as a precautionary measure.

But Google isn't the only party working on a self-piloted car. Researchers at Yale and NYU recently unveiled a human vision-based supercomputer called NeuFlow, which will aide in navigating cars in the future. A few years ago, DailyTech went for a ride in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge winner, a fully autonomous Chevy Tahoe.

Self-piloted autos are still years away from mass production, NYT notes, because computers have to become much more stable and less likely to crash, for one thing. Another obstacle beyond the technological aspect is the law. “The technology is ahead of the law in many areas,” Bernard Lu, a senior attorney for the California DMV told NYT. “If you look at the vehicle code, there are dozens of laws pertaining to the driver of a vehicle, and they all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle.” Google has argued that, because there is a human being present to override any decisions of the automobiles, its experiments are legal. Lu agreed.

But there are those who believe that the technology could change society as profoundly as the Internet has. Google has not revealed a clear business plan for the new technology, but both Thrun and Google co-founder Larry Page have a shared commitment to increase the nation's highway safety and efficiency, sources say.

At least one thing is certain, autonomous cars, when perfected, would save more lives than any texting-while-driving bans.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to be able to find good info from your articles.


My weblog :: exercises for vertical jump

Anonymous said...

Hi there, after reading this remarkable article i am also
happy to share my experience here with friends.



Here is my homepage :: indimusic.tv

Anonymous said...

My programmer is trying to convince me to move to .
net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
But he's tryiong none the less. I've been using WordPress on a variety of websites for
about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform.
I have heard excellent things about blogengine.
net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress
posts into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!



Feel free to visit my website ... exercises to improve vertical jump

Anonymous said...

Wow, this paragraph is pleasant, my sister is analyzing such
things, so I am going to let know her.

Stop by my webpage popular vacation destinations in mexico

Anonymous said...

I have been exploring for a little bit for any high-quality articles or weblog posts
in this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled
upon this website. Studying this info So i'm glad to show that I've
an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I
found out exactly what I needed. I so much indisputably will make certain
to do not overlook this site and give it a glance regularly.


my homepage - Workouts To Improve Vertical

Anonymous said...

When someone writes an paragraph he/she maintains the image of a user in his/her
brain that how a user can know it. Therefore that's why this piece of writing is amazing. Thanks!

Feel free to visit my web site; demo1.myworkdemos.com

Anonymous said...

I always used to study article in news papers
but now as I am a user of net thus from now I am using net for articles, thanks to web.


Here is my web page - workouts to improve vertical jump

Anonymous said...

Hi, just wanted to mention, I enjoyed this article. It was helpful.
Keep on posting!

Feel free to surf to my web page - vertical jump exercises

Anonymous said...

Hello there, I discovered your web site via Google at the
same time as looking for a similar matter, your
website got here up, it appears great. I've bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hi there, simply was alert to your weblog via Google, and located that it's really informative.
I am gonna be careful for brussels. I will be grateful for those who continue this in future.
Lots of people shall be benefited out of your writing.
Cheers!

Here is my blog post Increase vertical jump

Anonymous said...

My brother recommended I might like this blog.
He was entirely right. This post actually made my day. You cann't imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

Feel free to surf to my webpage :: workouts for vertical

Anonymous said...

I think this is one of the most vital info for
me. And i am glad reading your article. But want to remark on few general things, The
site style is perfect, the articles is really excellent : D.
Good job, cheers

my web site; exercises to jump higher

Anonymous said...

Why users still use to read news papers when in this technological globe everything
is existing on web?

Feel free to visit my blog workouts to increase vertical jump

Anonymous said...

I feel that is among the most vital information for me.
And i'm satisfied reading your article. However wanna observation on few basic issues, The site style is wonderful, the articles is in point of fact nice : D. Good task, cheers

Also visit my webpage - workouts for vertical leap

Anonymous said...

Exceptional post however I was wondering if you could write a litte
more on this subject? I'd be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Cheers!

My website :: exercises to increase vertical jump

Anonymous said...

I just couldn't depart your website prior to suggesting that I extremely loved the standard information an individual provide on your visitors? Is going to be back incessantly to inspect new posts

Check out my web blog :: Vertical Leap Workouts

Anonymous said...

You should take part in a contest for one of the most useful sites on the internet.
I most certainly will recommend this web site!

my blog post workouts for vertical jump

Anonymous said...

I have learn some excellent stuff here. Certainly worth
bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how a lot attempt you
place to make such a excellent informative web site.



Also visit my site :: http://iweboo.com/index.php?Do=/profile-27499/Info

Anonymous said...

Just desire to say your article is as surprising. The clarity in your post is just
spectacular and i could assume you're an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.

Also visit my blog post: http://www.tonystainsbury.co.uk