[shinobi602]

Google's autonomous cars have passed their first driving test in Nevada, which included a trip along the famous Las Vegas Strip. The desert state is the first to grant the vehicles a licence to use public roads. They are controlled by computers processing a combination of mapping data, radar, laser sensors and video feeds. Officials from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles rode in the cars "along freeways, state highways and neighborhoods both in Carson City and the busy Las Vegas Strip", they said in a statement. It comes after Nevada passed laws to create a new type of licence for autonomous vehicles last year, which came into effect on 1 March. The autonomous cars, based on Toyota Prius hybrid hatchbacks, will now be allowed on public roads for further development and testing, carrying a distinctive red licence plate with an infinity symbol on the left side. “I felt using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the ‘car of the future',” Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow said. “The unique red plate will be easily recognized by the public and law enforcement and will be used only for licensed autonomous test vehicles." Google is one off several firms racing to develop cars able to drive themselves. It is competing with car manufacturers as well as military firms to develop the technology. The web giant's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has argued that the fact that current vehicles rely on human drivers is a "bug". "It's amazing to me that we let humans drive cars," he said in 2010 as Google ramped up its research,in partnetship with Stanford University. As well as Nevada, Google's home state of California is considering laws to allow autonomous cars on its roads. "The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error," California state Senator Alex Padilla said in March when he introduced autonomous car legislation. "Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analyzing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely." Source

[Lazy Jones]

will now be allowed on public roads

No thanks

[Fuu]

Yes please. The faster this thing matures the better.

[Divvy]

I can't wait until auto-driving cars are widely available. I hate city driving.

[MrHicks]

so you just put in a destination and off it goes?

[Dapperk]

Who am I going to road rage on when I get cut off by one of these things?

[Earthstrike]

Vehicular accidents are one of the leading causes of human death. The saving made by a society that switch to autonomous vehicles, both directly, (through lower health costs, less maintenance on road infrastructure) and indirectly (less bereavement, less fuel consumption as a consequence of less idling, economic ripple effects) will be great.

[sixteen-bit]

No thanks

Haven't they been driving on public roads already?

[survivor]

Who am I going to road rage on when I get cut off by one of these things?

Send to Google a very angry email

[Lazy Jones]

Who am I going to road rage on when I get T-boned by one of these things?

Fixed.

Haven't they been driving on public roads already?

Hopefully not anywhere near me.

[Hoo-doo]

Fuck yes. It begins.

I was looking forward to the age of personal autonomous transportation for a while now.
Once they start becoming the norm, imagine the shift in car design we'll see.
They'll be like tiny bubbled living rooms, which zip along the highway with zero crashes, zero traffic jams and zero user input while we read the newspaper with a delicious cup of coffee.

[Arcteryx]

Hell yea!

Next we'll have them replacing truckers because machines don't need sleep.

[sprsk]

Best thing about this is that you can do things like read, watch tv and all that while you dri...sit in your car while its moving.

[Divvy]

I wonder if in the future, these things will be networked as to prevent traffic jams.

[Sweeper17]

good and bad but I dont think everybody will ever have these.

[Megalodactyl]

Sebastian Thrun is such a boss.

[Dyno]

Big game changer. In the future if you cannot drive your car, will you feel compelled to own it? What if a system of car sharing emerges, something like a more personalized and private public transportation option?

[shinobi602]

Hell yea! Next we'll have them replacing truckers because machines don't need sleep.

Where do the truckers work?

[SimleuqiR]

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...a_2213806b.jpg

I raise you...

Big game changer. In the future if you cannot drive your car, will you feel compelled to own it? What if a system of car sharing emerges, something like a more personalized and private public transportation option?

Zip cars of the future. I like.

[Narcosis]

so you just put in a destination and off it goes?

Yeah, I saw a demonstration of this on some science show and it's actually pretty neat. The software recognizes all traffic, pedestrians, bikes, road directions, signs, markers and speed laws in a 360 degree radius. It even performs in situations like lane merging quite well.

The interface is pretty standard modern GPS road maps with info on destination and speed.

[Escape Goat]

The old people wont come out of their houses now. The robot vacuum cleaner was enough to give the ladies the vapors.

[Feature]

What happens if someone just throws in the window with a rock and tries to steal it? I can't imagine this going well, especially when it drives through 'harder' parts of a town. The car will be destroyed before it even makes one block.

[Megalodactyl]

Where do the truckers work?

This is the inexorable march to a post-work society.

[bigmakattack]

I will stick to driving a car myself. Hate the idea of automated driving.

[Nerfgun]

Best thing about this is that you can do things like read, watch tv and all that while you dri...sit in your car while its moving.

Exactly. Like taking the train, but anywhere. Can't wait.

I bet we'll see it in the Zipcars of the world early.

[Megalodactyl]

I will stick to driving a car myself. Hate the idea of automated driving.

You dont want a robot to take you places?

[Tacitus_]

What happens if someone just throws in the window with a rock and tries to steal it? I can't imagine this going well, especially when it drives through 'harder' parts of a town. The car will be destroyed before it even makes one block.

The same thing that would happen if there was a human driver.

I will stick to driving a car myself. Hate the idea of automated driving.

You better be driving stick and not using cruise control.

[BobsRevenge]

Finally I will be liberated from living close to metro-train stations so that I don't feel compelled to drive anywhere drunk!

[Dutch Patriot]

I want to drive the car myself.

[Solstice]

I raise you...

I re-raise you:

[bigmakattack]

You dont want a robot to take you places?

Nah, I love driving too much to let anything or anyone else do it for me.

Maybe, just maybe it'd be nice when I have days where I have to go to work at 6 in the morning and im tired as all hell.

[Count Dookkake]

Road head will no longer be an ethical concern.

[Kinyou]

What happens if someone just throws in the window with a rock and tries to steal it? I can't imagine this going well, especially when it drives through 'harder' parts of a town. The car will be destroyed before it even makes one block.

You think people will just jump out of their houses and demolish the car? Why would a self driving car be at a higher risk?

Big game changer. In the future if you cannot drive your car, will you feel compelled to own it? What if a system of car sharing emerges, something like a more personalized and private public transportation option?

I'd really like to see that happen.

[Bisnic]

Hopefully not anywhere near me.

No thanks

So you trust humans more than computers when it comes to mistakes/forgot to look at blind spots/driving too fast/go through a red light/etc.?

[Hoo-doo]

I want to drive the car myself.

In the future, driving a car "by hand" will become mere recreation. A hobby, not a necessity.
Like sport shooting, horse riding or archery.

[Solstice]

So you trust humans more than computers when it comes to mistakes/forgot to look at blind spots/driving too fast/go through a red light/etc.?

I live in Houston, so yes, I would trust computers more than the drivers here.

[Azih]

I am willing to let you know every detail of my personal life if you give me on of these Google.

Hell put a webcam in my bedroom. I don't care. I hate driving!

[Tim-E]

I welcome this advancement.

[itxaka]

But will the car run crisys?


What OS is under it? Knowing google it will be some flavour of linux no? Can I install apache on it and share things with the passengers around me in a small short network? That would be cool.

[SimleuqiR]

I re-raise you: http://www.digitalcupcake.net/wp-con...ition-man.jpeg

Oh, we're going backwards?

No self-driving car has more swag that KITT

[Kinitari]

It's good that they're being very safe about this car. They keep testing the fuck out of it, and it gets better and better. Quick response time too - I saw in one video a lady tested it's braking ability by running out in front of it in traffic.

I think one of the strengths this car has is the ability to network - the creator mentions how ideally there will either be smart roads, or these cards will network together - and the result will be no traffic.

[Clevinger]

awesome

[Bitmap Frogs]

That'll be another million jobs gone. Truck drivers, bus drivers, cab drivers....

[Lazy Jones]

So you trust humans more than computers when it comes to mistakes/forgot to look at blind spots/driving too fast/go through a red light/etc.?

If all cars were on a track with only computer driven cars - no.
In unpredictable reality with todays (or near future technology) yes.

[Hellsing321]

The less stupid people in control of a car the better.

[Divvy]

If all cars were on a track with only computer driven cars - no. In unpredictable reality with todays (or near future technology) yes.

But computer driven cars could react to human negligence far faster than a person could.

[Solstice]

Oh, we're going backwards? No self-driving car has more swag that KITT

Swag, maybe not, but what he lacked in swag, he made up for in looooooooooove:

[ConfusingJazz]

If all cars were on a track with only computer driven cars - no. In unpredictable reality with todays (or near future technology) yes.

They have driven at least 250,000 miles in public streets already, and had only one accident.

When the human was driving it.

[SephCast]

I love highway driving and traffic-free driving, but hate congested city driving. I'd love this as an option.

[Hoo-doo]

Embrace the future.