Self-Driving Cars

Yeah, this is all well and good, but why can't they make a car that will BLOW ME?

Google developing 'the car that drives itself'

Google is developing technology that enables cars to drive themselves. The internet giant has announced that it has secretly been working on artificial-intelligence software to control vehicles.

The system scans the surroundings of a car and mimics the responses of the human driver, who remains on hand to take over if needed.

It also automatically adjusts the vehicle's speed depending on the local limit. Google claims the technology could save millions of lives lost in traffic accidents.

Engineers from the company have already clocked up 140,000 miles of test drives, using six Toyota Priuses and an Audi TT equipped with the software.

The trials, which have been carried out around the company's base in Mountain View, California, are reported to have been successful.

The only accident is said to have been caused by a regular car driving into the back of a computer-controlled Google vehicle.

The project has been overseen by Sebastian Thrun, a 43-year-old Google engineer also behind the Street View mapping system, in which users can virtually travel down streets.

In a posting on the company blog, Mr Thrun said: "According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents.

"We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half.
"Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to 'see' other traffic, as well as detailed maps which we collect using manually driven vehicles to navigate the road ahead."

Lawyers for the California transport department admitted the technology was "ahead of the law" as it meant drivers themselves did not complete various elements of driving that are legally controlled.

Google, however, claimed that because a driver would always be ready to take over in an emergency, they still remained in overall control, making them legally responsible for the vehicle.

The system is said to be several years away from mass production.

(Several, indeed. Original.)