Google Car Ventures Into The Wild - Sparks Questions About No Steering Wheel

Google has been showing off its driverless car technology for some years. There was one prototype based on the Lexus RX and quite a few more derived from the Prius. However, all these vehicles had a steering wheel, just in case the computers called it quits.

But all that changed with the launch of the first fully autonomous prototype that doesn't have a steering wheel. Essentially, passengers are strapped and sent out to discover automobiles can be much safer if you eliminate the middle man.

Over the past month or so, there has been a surge of sightings of the car on the streets near Mountain View, California. According to Search Engine Roundtable, some prototypes are venturing outside of the GooglePlex and also driving in nearby town and cities.

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TheSteve - 8/20/2015 2:12:18 PM

+1 Boost

Call me old-fashioned, but I love my new car, and I love driving. I do 250 mile day trips with my S.O., partly as an excuse to enjoy driving. As they say, it's the journey, and not necessarily the destination.

That said, there may come a day when people view manually operated cars like many of us view standard transmissions: Why would anyone want to do that. We're already amongst those who've only known streaming and the idea of buying a CD is so last century to them.

There's just the question of liability. When a car I'm not operating, and cannot operate, gets into an accident, whose fault is it? I bet the insurance lobby will strike a deal with the government and pass No Fault laws in which we're all compelled to have insurance, can't take the manufacturer or occupants to court, and everything just magically works out perfectly all by itself, as soon as the rainbows and fairy dust settle.

eunice - 8/22/2015 1:03:14 AM

+1 Boost

Since there haven't been any google car accidents to date after 1M miles, Consider how little liability will exist for insurers than presently exists for 1M human error prone driven miles - that is at least 1 lifetime and there are few people that go that long with no accidents - average is probably 3 lifetime accidents per person minimum.
So with low payouts insurance rates will drop 99% - because there is virtually no liability - it will go to no fault and no one cares since instead of paying thousands per year for fault insurance you will be paying $10 (or less) for no-fault.
As far as loving the feel of the wheel and spending all that time watching the road attentively, well I can think of 1M more interesting things to do - driving will be just for stubborn older people - same idea as reading newspaper in print or instead read it online where you can search and everything is up to date.

TheSteve - 8/24/2015 4:03:27 PM

+1 Boost

eunice: There actually HAVE been numerous accidents involving Googles's vehicles, reported in AutoSpies and available on the 'Net via Google search. They're over-represented in terms of accidents per miles traveled. However, according to Google, all have been the other guy's fault.

These facts put your position in a different light.