Google Reveals Self Driving Car Prototype - Would You Dare Be Caught In A Clown Car Like This?

Google has been building self-driving cars for years, but what we've seen so far has always been retrofits of existing cars — until now. The search giant unveiled on Tuesday a fully autonomous self-driving car, built from the ground up by Google and its partners.

Company co-founder Sergey Brin revealed his plans at Recode's Code Conference in southern California. He told Recode editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher (who has ridden in the car), that there's a safety benefit in a custom-built self-driving car. Because the car doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator or brakes, it has more sensors in strategic spots than is possible in a regular vehicle. It is also equipped with a big "stop" button. In addition to all this tech, Google's autonomous car includes internal power steering and power brakes.

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poot66 - 5/28/2014 6:10:09 PM

+1 Boost

If every other car on the road was self driving so there were no collisions and it looked more normal. Otherwise I don't get in anything smaller than a Civic or Corolla ( and I even try to avoid that size as much as possible).

t_bone - 5/28/2014 9:54:58 PM

+1 Boost

The arrogance of thinking this will work in present day is mind-boggling. How did it get so far, or is this just a stock market ploy? I can only guess that when it "sees" something out-of-sorts (a tumbled trash can, a child, a drunk driver), it slams on the brakes...and then what?

Let's just get our nav systems working first...

jeffy210 - 5/28/2014 10:46:24 PM

+2 Boost

You obviously haven't been paying attention to the news on Google's self driving car. 700,000 miles, and the only two accidents have been when it was in manual mode being operated by a human. Oh, and incidentally, all those miles were on public roads.

Will the AI be infallible? No, but all that it needs to be is better than humans. And so far that's looking pretty good. (and I know most people on here think they are better drivers than most, but all things considered, you're not the ones I'm worried about on the roads).

t_bone - 5/30/2014 11:38:45 AM

+1 Boost

I'm going to defer to MIT on this topic.
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/513531/proceed-with-caution-toward-the-self-driving-car/

Had to use BING to find the article. Seriously.

topneuro - 5/28/2014 10:44:14 PM

+3 Boost

The car that you can safely; "make out", eat, sleep, text, and use a cell phone and nobody engaged in that.

stampfer - 5/29/2014 9:36:44 AM

+2 Boost

Well let's see- is there a possible benefit within congested city traffic? Maybe. Does this mean you wouldn't need a drivers license to operate the car? Some of us drive because we enjoy driving- the trip from point A to point B may be secondary. I'm already concerned about having too many "back up" safeguards in driver controlled vehicles and having a bunch of new generation drivers not learning a full set of skills which are necessary to "drive." Having an autonomous vehicle may be OK if the AI is perfect, but then you are not driving, you are riding.