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Tag: self-driving cars

  • Google’s Driverless Cars Feel the Need for Speed (Cause It’s Safer!)

    Google’s Driverless Cars Feel the Need for Speed (Cause It’s Safer!)

    Try using this excuse the next time you get pulled over for speeding.

    According to Google, exceeding the speed limit is actually safer than strictly obeying the law in some circumstances. For this reason, the company’s autonomous vehicles are allowed to break the law, ever so slightly, if the situation warrants it.

    Dmitri Dolgov, the lead software engineer on Google’s driverless car project, says that speeding is safer than sticking to the speed limit when all the cars around you are going much faster.

    Of course. That’s called the little old lady driving on the interstate theorem.

    Because of this, Dolgov says that Google’s driverless cars are programmed to go 10 mph over the speed limit “when traffic conditions warrant,” according to Reuters.

    Google’s autonomous cars doing 55 in a 45 shouldn’t worry you. What could worry you is how Google’s autonomous cars will react when other cars, you know, driven by dumb, fallible humans, make mistakes. The time is fast approaching, too. Driverless cars should hit UK roads in January of next year. Google is already testing them all across Mountain View in the US, and is hoping to start operating them in other states (pending approval of course) soon.

    Hearts and minds will need to be won, however, as about half of Americans are still a bit wary of robot cars on the road.

  • Driverless Cars Will Hit UK Roads in January 2015

    Driverless Cars Will Hit UK Roads in January 2015

    Business Secretary Vince Cable and the UK Department for Transport have just announced a “fast track” initiative for driverless cars, saying that the autonomous vehicles will hit public roads in about six months.

    As the BBC reports, The Department for Transport is a little late on its own projections. The technology was supposed to hit roads in 2013, but up until now the cars have just been legal for tests on private roads.

    “The excellence of our scientists and engineers has established the UK as a pioneer in the development of driverless vehicles through pilot projects. Today’s announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than 6 months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society, said Cable.

    The Department is allowing this through a pilot program, in which cities in the UK can bid for a piece of a £10 million pool to host the driverless cars. In January of 2015, the Department will select up to three cities for the trials. Each trials will go for a year and a half to three years.

    “Driverless cars have huge potential to transform the UK’s transport network – they could improve safety, reduce congestion and lower emissions, particularly CO2. We are determined to ensure driverless cars can fulfil this potential which is why we are actively reviewing regulatory obstacles to create the right framework for trialling these vehicles on British roads,” said Transport Minister Claire Perry.

    Another part of this “fast track” initiative is the launch of a new review “to look at current road regulations to establish how the UK can remain at the forefront of driverless car technology and ensure there is an appropriate regime for testing driverless cars in the UK.”

    Despite some reservations from law enforcement officials, lawmakers, and the general population, driverless cars are pushing forward in the States as well. The most notable push is from Google, whose cars have logged over 700,000 total miles. Some states have already put the wheels in motion on updating current regulations to facilitate autonomous vehicles.

    Image via Google

  • FBI: Driverless Cars Might Be Good for Bad People

    FBI: Driverless Cars Might Be Good for Bad People

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Strategic Issues Group is worried about the possible criminal uses of all these self-driving cars that folks like Google are trying to get on our roadways.

    The Guardian obtained an internal FBI report, which offers up some insight into how the country’s top investigative body feels about all this autonomy. From The Guardian:

    In a section called Multitasking, the report notes that “bad actors will be able to conduct tasks that require use of both hands or taking one’s eyes off the road which would be impossible today.”

    Send a text? Change the song on Spotify? The FBI is presumably worried about these “bad actors” doing things that are hard to do when focusing on not crashing the car – like shooting (accurately) at pursuant cops.

    Again, from the report:

    The report, written by agents in the Strategic Issues Group within the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence , says, “Autonomy … will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today.”

    A little vague – thousand-pound boxes of metal and glass are already potentially lethal weapons. But it’s not a huge leap to wonder about even more sinister uses for an autonomous vehicle. One the comes to mind, of course, is allowing suicide bombings to, well, just be bombings.

    It’s not all doom and gloom from the report, however. The FBI rightly acknowledges that “the risk that distraction or poor judgement leading to collision that stems from manual operation would be substantially reduced.”

    They also speculate on some potential uses for the good guys – like better suspect tracking through inconspicuousness. It sure would be easier to sic a driverless car on a criminal’s tail. Would they even notice? I’d imagine that driverless cars would have to become pretty commonplace before people would stop caring about the ghost mobiles following them.

    Image via Google Self-Driving Car Project, YouTube

  • Vacuum Maker Not Impressed With Google’s Driverless Cars

    Vacuum Maker Not Impressed With Google’s Driverless Cars

    Neato Robotics put out a fun late Friday press release asking what the big deal is about Google’s driverless cars.

    As you’ve probably heard, Google has been showing off a new prototype for the future of automobiles, which goes so far as to remove the steering wheel, and gas and brake pedals.

    “What’s the big deal? We’ve had a self-driving robot without a steering wheel and brakes for many years!” said Nancy Nunziati, Neato’s vice president of marketing. “There are lots of similarities, but Neato is available now. And you don’t need seatbelts or approval from the US Department of Transportation to use it.”

    And yes, there’s an infographic.

    Nicely played, Neato.

    Image via BusinessWire

  • Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Eliminate Steering Wheel, Gas And Brake Pedals. Just Trust Them.

    Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Eliminate Steering Wheel, Gas And Brake Pedals. Just Trust Them.

    Google has been busy building some new self-driving car model prototypes without steering wheels gas pedals or brake pedals, or the need for human intervention. Yikes.

    With Google’s original self-driving cars, humans were able to take over. This takes things another step forward. The company says its software and sensors do ALL the work. Let’s hope they’re more reliable than most of the computers and software I’ve used throughout my life.

    Here’s a look at some people (including a kid) riding in one of the new ones.

    Just remember that when Google’s self-driving vehicles have been involved in accidents, humans were at fault. One was when a person was driving it, and the other was when the vehicle was rear-ended by another driver.

    These prototypes represent the first models completely built by Google. Past models were cars created by auto manufacturers (like Toyota, Audi and Lexus), with Google using its technology for modifications.

    “The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button,” says Chris Urmson, the project’s director. “And that’s an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.”

    “It was inspiring to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask, ‘What should be different about this kind of vehicle?’” says Urmson. “We started with the most important thing: safety. They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections. And we’ve capped the speed of these first vehicles at 25 mph. On the inside, we’ve designed for learning, not luxury, so we’re light on creature comforts, but we’ll have two seats (with seatbelts), a space for passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a screen that shows the route—and that’s about it.”

    The company says it intends to build 100 prototype vehicles, and that safety drivers will start testing early versions with manual controls later this summer. It wants to launch a small pilot program in California within the next couple of years.

    Image via Google

  • Google: Driverless Car Tickets Should Come Our Way

    Google: Driverless Car Tickets Should Come Our Way

    What in the hell happens when one of Google’s driverless cars gets pulled over and handed a ticket?

    I say ‘when’ because it’s actually never happened. Though Google’s self-driving vehicles have now logged over 700,000 miles, the Mountain View Police Department has never issued a citation. A Sergeant with the PD recently hold The Atlantic that Google’s autonomous vehicles have never been officially ticketed, nor have they been pulled over and let go–at least to his knowledge.

    Of course, this brings up the obvious question: What’ll happen when one does get ticketed?

    Though Google is currently working hard to make their car more city-ready, mistakes are bound to happen. Google’s self-driving fleet has never been involved in any accidents, but that doesn’t mean that one of the cars couldn’t do something that could be seen as a traffic violation to a nearby officer. It seems inevitable that one of the cars will eventually get pulled over.

    And when that happens, Google apparently wants the ticket.

    “What we’ve been saying to the folks in the DMV, even in public session, for unmanned vehicles, we think the ticket should go to the company. Because the decisions are not being made by the individual,” said Ron Medford, Google’s safety guy for its driverless initiative.

    But Google doesn’t have the final say in how California police departments, and eventually police departments all over the country handle any possible missteps by our robot driver overlords. It all falls to the current vehicle code, and how lawmakers and courts decide to adapt based on ever-changing technology.

    “Right now the California Vehicle Code reads that the person seated in the driver’s seat is responsible for the movement of the vehicle,” says the Mountain View PD. “Exceptions being someone grabbing the steering wheel and forcing the car off the roadway, etc.”

    Furthermore, since 1972, California’s Vehicle Code has defined a “driver” as…

    A “driver” is a person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. The term “driver” does not include the tillerman or other person who, in an auxiliary capacity, assists the driver in the steering or operation of any articulated firefighting apparatus.

    You see how this could get muddy?

    It’s basically up to officials to get this right. California signed its driverless car law back in 2012, and what it did was demand the department of transportation adopt new safety standards for the new vehicles by next year. The roadways are changing, and there have to be new definitions and new guidelines for what constitutes a “driver” or “operator.”

    What do you think? Should Google foot the bill? Should the occupant still be responsible, since they initiated the program that led to the unlawful driving action?

    Image via Google

  • Google Works To Make Self-Driving Cars More City-Ready

    Google Works To Make Self-Driving Cars More City-Ready

    Google just gave the world an update on its self-driving cars. The company says it has been focused on making them more city-ready.

    Google has improved the cars’ software, it says, so it can now detect hundreds of distinct objects at the same time, including pedestrians, buses, a stop sign being held by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making turn signal gestures.

    “A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can’t—and it never gets tired or distracted,” says Chris Urmson, director of Google’s self-driving car project.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    “As it turns out, what looks chaotic and random on a city street to the human eye is actually fairly predictable to a computer, Urmson says. “As we’ve encountered thousands of different situations, we’ve built software models of what to expect, from the likely (a car stopping at a red light) to the unlikely (blowing through it). We still have lots of problems to solve, including teaching the car to drive more streets in Mountain View before we tackle another town, but thousands of situations on city streets that would have stumped us two years ago can now be navigated autonomously.”

    Let’s just hope that this is the first software in history that’s completely flawless.

    So far so good. Google says its vehicles have logged about 700,000 miles.

    About half of Americans are sold on the idea of the self-driving car. According to a recent Pew Research Internet Project study, 50% said they wouldn’t ride in one 48% said they would. Presumably the other 2% were unsure.

    Image via Google

  • Driverless Cars More Popular Than Lab Meat and Brain Implants, At Least

    Driverless Cars More Popular Than Lab Meat and Brain Implants, At Least

    The Pew Research Internet Project just published the results of a big survey on “science in the next 50 years,” and the general finding is that the majority of Americans think technological advancements with make life better.

    One area of tech progress that people still can’t seem to agree on is driverless cars, or self-driving cars, or whatever you want to call them. The point is that Americans are oddly wary of having a robot take them to the grocery store.

    Pew asked this question to over a thousand people: Would you ride in a driverless car?

    Astonishingly (to me, at least), 50 percent of those asked said no, they would not ride in a driverless car. On the other hand, 48 percent said that they would, so at least most people are decisive on the issue.

    This makes driverless cars only 22 points more popular than brain implants and 28 points more popular than lab-grown meat.

    As you might expect, there’s an interesting divide in who supports the idea of driverless cars and who doesn’t like the sound of them.

    “48% would like to do this if given the opportunity, while 50% say this is something they would not want to do. College graduates are particularly interested in giving driverless cars a try: 59% of them would do so, while 62% of those with a high school diploma or less would not. There is also a geographical split on this issue: Half of urban (52%) and suburban (51%) residents are interested in driverless cars, but just 36% of rural residents say this is something they’d find appealing,” says Pew.

    Good news for the college grads and urban enthusiasts–they’re coming. Sure, the technology is having to jump through dozens of legal hoops, but tons of companies are developing or planning to develop driverless technology. Of course, Google is the most well-known of the bunch–but other companies are getting in on the ground floor, for instance Tesla.

    Some analysts even think that the majority of automobile sales will come in the form of driverless cars as early as the year 2035. In 20 years, these analysts predict that driverless car sales could exceed 12 million units.

    So, where do you stand? Lover or a hater?

  • Driverless Car Sales to Reach Nearly 12 Million in 2035

    Driverless Car Sales to Reach Nearly 12 Million in 2035

    Driverless car technology is here, and many analysts believe it is not a question of if, but when such technology will become dominant on U.S. roadways. Market research firm IHS today waded into the issue with a new report predicting just when driverless cars will begin to become popular with consumers.

    According to IHS, driverless car technology will gradually be implemented into vehicle designs. Consumers will soon be able to get cars with limited self-driving capabilities to be used only in certain driving conditions, and fully autonomous vehicles that still have human controls will come later.

    The new report predicts that self-driving car sales will reach only 230,000 in the year 2025, though sales will quickly balloon to nearly 12 million by the year 2035. IHS believes there will be 54 million autonomous vehicles in use worldwide by 2035, with an increasing portion of sales coming from self-driving cars that do not also have human controls.

    Though the IHS report does mention the current roadblock of a lack of regulation for the vehicles, it also looks ahead to the troubles the technology will face once governments have laid a framework for their use. These risks include the need for extremely reliable software and protection against potential cyber attacks. Despite these risks, autonomous vehicles will almost certainly reduce accident rates, as the problem of distracted drivers is eliminated.

    “There are several benefits from self-driving cars to society, drivers and pedestrians,” said Egil Juliussen, a co-author of the report and a principal analyst for infotainment and autonomous driver assisted systems at IHS. “Accident rates will plunge to near zero for SDCs, although other cars will crash into SDCs, but as the market share of SDCs on the highway grows, overall accident rates will decline steadily. Traffic congestion and air pollution per car should also decline because SDCs can be programmed to be more efficient in their driving patterns.”

  • Self-Driving Vehicles to Make Up 75% of Sales by 2035

    Self-Driving Vehicles to Make Up 75% of Sales by 2035

    With congress now debating driverless car technology legislation and more automakers beginning to test their own driverless technology, it appears that autonomous vehicles are finally on their way to consumers. Unfortunately, legal barriers will stall the wide adoption of driverless cars for at leas another decade.

    Market research firm Navigant Research today predicted that autonomous vehicles will begin to make up a significant portion of the car market by the year 2025. In the decade following, the technology will become pervasive, eventually ending up on 75% of all vehicles sold in the year 2035. This report matches the time frame seen an IEEE report released in 2012 that predicted 75% of all vehicles on the road will be autonomous by the year 2040.

    “The introduction of satellite navigation systems has hastened the development of autonomous vehicle features, replacing the need for a massively expensive road infrastructure that was once thought to be a requirement for automated driving,” said David Alexander, senior research analyst at Navigant Research. “Already, automakers are incorporating intelligent onboard systems, such as self-parking, traffic jam assistance, and adaptive cruise control, in new and upcoming models.”

    Though regulatory hurdles still pose a threat to the advancing technology, some individual states such as Nevada and California are already allowing limited testing of autonomous vehicles on their roads. Navigant and other market watchers believe the inherent safety of taken control from human drivers will quickly drive adoption of the technology once early hurdles are cleared.

  • Tesla Plans Self-Driving Car, Elon Musk Looks for Autopilot Engineers on Twitter

    Tesla Plans Self-Driving Car, Elon Musk Looks for Autopilot Engineers on Twitter

    Although Google is the company that’s garnered the most attention when it comes to driverless automobile technology, they’re not the only ones looking to make a big push into the market – a market that is expected to grow quickly over the next couple of decades.

    Tesla is making a move to develop their own self-driving cars, and CEO Elon Musk is looking for a team to report directly to him. Musk tweeted that there is an “intense effort” at the company to develop a “practical autopilot system” for the Model S.

    He basically tweeted out a job posting as well:

    This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Tesla’s forward-thinking strategy. Plus, Musk said back in May that his company would eventually go in this direction.

    Tesla is looking to build a car that would be up to 90% self-driving in the next few years.

    Some analysts have suggested that half of all U.S. automobile sales could come in the form of driverless models by the year 2032. Of course, this not only depends on the rate of development of the technology, but also the speed in which states pass new laws governing driverless cars. With a strong push from Google, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a driverless car law into effect back in September of last year. Other states are also looking at ways to regulate the new tech.

    For Elon Musk, pitching a self-driving car to the public would be another task in convincing some drivers that the Tesla is the right car for them. Despite positive sales and recent news that the Tesla Model S is basically the safest car out there, some car-buyers are still wary of the electric model in general. Musk is looking to assuage those concerns by making a cross-country trip using Tesla’s supercharger stations placed strategically across the U.S. He claims that he’ll only need to charge his Model S for about 9 hours total to make it from Los Angeles to New York City.

    Image via Tesla Motors

  • Nissan Expecting To Market Self-Driving Cars By 2020

    Nissan Expecting To Market Self-Driving Cars By 2020

    With every piece of technology being automated in this day in age, which piece of technology has yet to be fully automated? The car. If you think it has not been thought of yet, think again, because Nissan, the sixth-largest automotive company (source: OICA) is currently experimenting with the technology to make the consumer car fully automated. Imagine a car where all that you have to do is to plug an address into the car’s built-in GPS, and the car will automatically transport you to its destination without having any hands touching the steering wheel. This is the vision that Nissan has in mind.

    According to the Denver Post, Andy Palmer, the Executive Vice President of Nissan Motor Company, exclaimed the following statement to automotive journalists at a recent event at El Toro Air Force Base in Southern California.

    “Nissan Motor Co. pledges that we will be ready to bring multiple affordable, energy efficient, fully autonomous-driving vehicles to the market by 2020.”

    Many of you may think that giving up control of driving your automobile may be a crazy idea, but the Nissan Motor Company thinks that this may help reduce the amount of accidents caused by human error. The amount of control the driver has of the car can be modified, just in case this technology becomes erroneous.

    This past Tuesday, Nissan demonstrated a fully automatic version of their Leaf hybrid vehicle. During this demonstration, a dummy passenger unexpectedly approaches the front of the vehicle, and with thanks to laser technology, the vehicle automatically dodges the pedestrian without any control from the steering wheel by the driver. To see this test in action, be sure to view the video below.

    (image)

    Even though this is new technology for Nissan to be experimenting with, Google is also experimenting with their own version of a self-driving car; however, with Nissan’s model, it will not have a self-rotating sensor visible on the top of the car. (Source: Wall Street Journal)

    At the presentation made at El Toro, Palmer stated that “Beginning in 2020, Nissan plans to roll out autonomous driving technology and make it available across its model lineup within two product generations, or roughly between eight and 10 years thereafter.”

    What do you think about this new technology to soon hit the automotive industry? Will this help make getting from point A to point B more effective, or is this a bad idea altogether? Let us know below in this post’s comments section.

  • Half of U.S. Car Sales to be Driverless by 2032

    Half of U.S. Car Sales to be Driverless by 2032

    Google and car manufacturers are continuing to test new self-driving car technologies. At the same time, lawmakers are struggling to regulate the technology while reassuring the public that vehicles will actually be safer without humans behind the wheel. There won’t be much time to get ahead of this technology, though, if new predictions are accurate.

    Analyst firm ABI Research today predicted that more than 10 million “robotic” vehicles will ship in North America in the year 2032. That would represent around half of the vehicles shipping in North America. Also, the first commercial self-driving cars will show up in the U.S. starting one decade from now.

    “While the technological feasibility of autonomous vehicles is being demonstrated by Google, Audi, Volvo, Bosch, and Continental, obstacles such as high costs and lack of legislation remain,” said Dominique Bonte, practice director at ABI. “On the other hand, the benefits of autonomous vehicles in terms of safety, cost savings, efficiency, and positive impact on the economy, are driving research and development efforts globally. With ADAS-type assistance features already being implemented on a wide scale, the next phase of autonomous co-pilot type vehicles will materialize in this decade. Fully autonomous, self-driving, robotic vehicles will appear 10 years from now.”

    ABI’s new report on autonomous vehicles predicts that automation will be implemented in vehicles gradually over the next decade. It also states that, in addition to the new legislation needed to regulate driverless cars, lawmakers will have to address current safety legislation (such as texting-while-driving bans) that will be made obsolete by the technology.

    (Image courtesy Steve Jurvetson/Wikimedia Commons)

  • Google Thinks That In 100 Years, People Will Marvel That We Ever Allowed Humans To Drive

    Google Thinks That In 100 Years, People Will Marvel That We Ever Allowed Humans To Drive

    Google held its annual shareholders meeting on Thursday, discussing numerous topics. As usual in shareholder-related meetings, Google felt the need to reassure investors that despite its investments in “moon shot” ideas like Google Glass and self-driving cars, the company continues to invest in its core business.

    But this time, Schmidt also took the time to talk up the cars. He told the crowd, “In a hundred years time, I wonder, and I really do wonder, whether people will marvel that we allowed humans to drive cars.”

    “The potential to reduce accidents, to cut congestion, to get rid of a lot of wasted parking lots,” he added. “And the mobility self-driving cars will bring to people with impaired mobility will be life changing.”

    Schmidt then proceeded to show the crowd the classic video where a Google car drives a blind man to Taco Bell.

    The meeting then transitioned to showing off the new Google Maps, as if attendees did not pay attention to Google I/O.

  • Google Snags a New Self-Driving Car Safety Chief

    Google Snags a New Self-Driving Car Safety Chief

    Google, who has been working very hard to get their self-driving cars on the road, has just made another leap forward for the initiative. Just a couple months after having driverless cars legalized in California, Google has made a significant hire and created a new position inside the company.

    Wired reports that Google has snatched up Ron Medford to be the new Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars. Ron Medford is the current Deputy Director of the National highway Traffic Safety Administration.

    According to the report, Medford will resign his position at the NHTSA on November 30th, and officially take the position within Google on January 7th. Serving closely with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Medford used his position to shine a light on the prevalence of distracted driving, as well as push the new fuel economy guidelines set to go into effect in the next decade or so.

    Back in September, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1298 at Google HQ in Mountain View. That law forces the state to start adopting rules and regulation for the implementation of driverless cars, while also making their operation legal on public roads. California isn’t the only state making significant strides in brining driverless technology to their roadways. Nevada has legalized self-driving cars, begun developing regulations, and issued Google an autonomous vehicle license.

    Google, who has logged well over 300,000 miles without incident with their driverless cars initiative, is clearly on the fast track to making all of this a reality. With this new hire, they find a way into the dark, cavernous void of federal governmental policy. Some analysts have predicted that self-driving cars could account for 75% of the traffic on the road by 2040. Maybe that’s not such a far-fetched idea after all.

  • Driverless Cars More Accident Prone When Humans Are Involved

    Driverless Cars More Accident Prone When Humans Are Involved

    On Tuesday, Senate bill 1298 was signed into law at Google’s headquarters. This makes it so California must adopt rules and regulations for the operation of driverless cars like the ones Google has. It makes it legal for these things to drive on the road.

    Many are no doubt wondering what this means for safety.

    Well, Google has been touting the safety of the self-driving vehicles ever since they were unveiled. A few months ago, CEO Larry Page talked up the cars in relation to the safety of our children. At the Zeitgeist 2012 event in May, he said, “You know, and that seems really crazy. You’re like, how can a car possibly drive itself? You know, how’s that ever going to work? And, you know, we’ve had a team working on that and we’ve driven over 200,000 miles now with no incidents. And it’s really amazing to ride in one of these cars. It’s just almost a life-changing experience. You sit down, you drive through the parking lot, and you’re like ‘Why am I driving,’ you know?”

    “It’s just an amazing, amazing experience,” he continued. “And think about — you know, I have young children. I’m sure many of you do as well. Think about your children. By the time that they’re old enough to drive, there’s no reason we can’t have technology that helps them — teaches them to drive and learn all the things they need to know. And that’s like almost, I think, the leading cause of death, actually, for kids as they learn to drive. I mean, it’s a big deal. So I think, you know, my point was that I think in technology, if we take some ambitious bets, we really have an amazing ability to transform people’s lives.”

    By the way, the cars have driven many more miles since that speech. Earlier this month, they surpassed 300,000.

    So far, the cars have been involved in two known accidents. One accident happened last year. Google said that it was the result of human error. “Safety is our top priority,” the company told Business Insider at the time. “One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car.”

    Another incident was mentioned in a New York Times article from 2010, when Google engineers said that there had only been one accident, and that it happened when the car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.

    So far, we have heard of no incident in which a driverless car was responsible for a crash because of being a driverless car. I wonder how many humans have crashed cars during Google’s 300,000 miles.

    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers predicts that self-driving cars will account for 75% of traffic by 2040.

  • Gov. Jerry Brown Signs California Driverless Car Law at Google HQ

    Gov. Jerry Brown Signs California Driverless Car Law at Google HQ

    Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate bill 1298 into law at Google HQ in Mountain View. He was joined by Google’s Sergey Brin and bill sponsor Alex Padilla.

    The bill forces California to adopt rules and regulations for the operating of driverless cars and it also legalizes their operation on public roads.

    “Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt rules and regulations that are designed to promote the safe operation of specific vehicles, including, among other things, schoolbuses and commercial motor vehicles,” says the bill. “This bill would require the department to adopt safety standards and performance requirements to ensure the safe operation and testing of “autonomous vehicles,” as defined, on the public roads in this state. The bill would permit autonomous vehicles to be operated or tested on the public roads in this state pending the adoption of safety standards and performance requirements that would be adopted under this bill.”

    Google’s Sergey Brin (sporting Google Glass) hit on why he’s excited about the technology; access to transportation, getting stuff done while in traffic, and eliminating congestion being a few reasons. One interesting point he took some time on involved car sharing, and how that would beautify urban areas.

    “Parking lots scar to surface of the earth, because cars are utilized poorly.” They are mostly just sitting there, as only 3% of a car’s life is spent driving, said Brin. “There’s very little car sharing going on. What i see in this project is the ability to transform our urban centers.”

    The driverless cars could drop off a rider, and immediately go on to transport another rider. This perk to the technology was also mentioned recently by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, who think that self-driving cars could account for 75% of traffic on the road by the year 2040.

    “I expect that self-driving cars are going to be far safer than human driven cars,” said Brin. He said he expects them to “dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone.”

    “I would hope that people can broadly utilize this technology within several years,” said Brin when asked about a timeframe. “I can count [the number of years] on my hands.”

    “This self-driving car is another step forward in this long march of California leading the world,” said Gov. Brown.

    And when asked about some groups who may be “skittish” about the new technology, Gov. Brown said that “Anyone who gets in a car and realizes it’s driving itself will be a little skittish…but they’ll get over it.”

  • California Driverless Car Bill to Be Signed into Law at Google HQ

    California Driverless Car Bill to Be Signed into Law at Google HQ

    UPDATE: It’s been signed.

    Late last month, California’s SB 1298 landed on the Governor’s desk after being passed in both the Senate and the Assembly (37-0, 74-2, respectively). And today, Gov. Jerry Brown plans to sign the bill into law at Google Headquarters in Mountain View.

    Sergey Brin will be there, and you can watch the event at 1 pm PT over on Google’s YouTube channel.

    SB 1298 will force California to adopt regulations for the operating of driverless cars as well as legalize operation on public roads. It will also change the definition of the word “operator” to include a person who engages driverless technology.

    “Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt rules and regulations that are designed to promote the safe operation of specific vehicles, including, among other things, schoolbuses and commercial motor vehicles,” says the bill. “This bill would require the department to adopt safety standards and performance requirements to ensure the safe operation and testing of “autonomous vehicles,” as defined, on the public roads in this state. The bill would permit autonomous vehicles to be operated or tested on the public roads in this state pending the adoption of safety standards and performance requirements that would be adopted under this bill.”

    Bill sponsor Senator Alex Padilla has made the argument that “autonomous vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and improve safety on our roads and highways,” considering that the “vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error.”

    Of course, it’s fitting that Gov. Brown plans to sign the bil into law in Mountain View. Although Google isn’t the only company working on driverless technology, they are the the most outspoken champions of it.

    The Bay Citizen reveals just how much effort Google put into making this new law a reality. The company paid $140,000 to lobby the California Highway Patrol, and a couple years back gave $64,000 in campaign contributions to Senate and Assembly candidates. The company also donated to Gov. Brown as well as the woman he defeated, Meg Whitman. And that was a few years ago – they’ve no doubt upped their game in recent years.

    Reminder: You can watch the event live here at 1 pm PST.

  • Self-Driving Cars to Account for 75% of Traffic by 2040, Says IEEE

    Self-Driving Cars to Account for 75% of Traffic by 2040, Says IEEE

    Despite the concerns of old people in Florida, it’s apparent that driverless technology is the future. Google, of course, is furiously working on developing road-ready self-driving cars, and they are hardly the only ones.

    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) thinks that we are close to roadways dominated by the technology. In fact, they predict that self-driving cars will make up 75% of all cars on the road in less than thirty years.

    “With any form of intelligent transportation, building the infrastructure to accommodate it is often the largest barrier to widespread adoption,” said Dr. Alberto Broggi, IEEE Senior Member and professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Parma in Italy. “Since we can use the existing networks of roadways, autonomous vehicles are advantageous for changing how the majority of the world will travel on a daily basis.”

    The IEEE also envisions a world without traffic lights, stop signs, or any other visible signals. Their driverless landscape involves ““Intersections equipped with sensors, cameras and radars that can monitor and control traffic flow to help eliminate driver collisions and promote a more efficient flow of traffic.” You’ll still be waiting at “red lights,” in theory, but without the actual red light.

    This would help increase traffic flow and reduce jams, according to the IEEE. They envisions separate lanes for traditional and automated cars. ““Through use of dedicated lanes on the highway, it will provide more streamlined flows of traffic, which will make the transportation with these vehicles more energy efficient,” says Dr. Azim Eskandarian of the IEEE.

    If 75% of all cars on the raod will be automated by 2040, that means that 75% of the population would have to own their own (personal or household), right? Not exactly, according to the IEEE. As driverless technology permeates the culture, car-sharing programs will make it easy for people to use a self-driving car, and then leave it to go transport someone else to their destination. Basically, automated taxis.

    Thrilling stuff, in my book. I’d love to get some light reading done while on my way to work. Hey, maybe I could even have a drink (just kidding, kind of). The technology has a ways to come before it’s ready to become this mainstream, but Google has logged over 300,000 miles with its driverless fleet. And Toyota, BMW, and Audi have all presented concepts or actually tested the tech on their cars. Plus, you have universities like Stanford testing high-speed varieties of autonomous vehicles.

    On the regulation side, driverless technology continues to clear hurdles in states like California and Nevada.

    “Over the next 28 years, use of more automated technologies will spark a snowball effect of acceptance and driverless vehicles will dominate the road,” says Jeffrey Miller of the IEEE. Let’s hope that people are willing to sit back and let the robots do the work.

  • Self-Driving Cars Clear Another Hurdle in California

    Self-Driving Cars Clear Another Hurdle in California

    In March, a California State Senator introduced legislation that aimed to force the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt safety standards and requirements for autonomous vehicles, aka self-driving cars.

    And now, that bill has been passed an sent to the Governor’s office for his signature.

    “The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error,” said Senator Alex Padilla when he first introduced the bill. “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. Autonomous vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and improve safety on our roads and highways.”

    Apparently, the rest of the legislature agrees. The language of the bill allows for self-driving cars to be “operated or tested” on public roads – if the safety standards are adopted, of course.

    Here’s an excerpt from the bill, SB 1298:

    Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway Patrol to adopt rules and regulations that are designed to promote the safe operation of specific vehicles, including, among other things, schoolbuses and commercial motor vehicles.

    This bill would require the department to adopt safety standards and performance requirements to ensure the safe operation and testing of “autonomous vehicles,” as defined, on the public roads in this state. The bill would permit autonomous vehicles to be operated or tested on the public roads in this state pending the adoption of safety standards and performance requirements that would be adopted under this bill.

    California isn’t the only state with driverless car legislation on the docket. Back in June of 2011, Nevada passed a bill that allowed the State Department of Transportation to begin creating rules and regulation governing the operation of driverless cars. While that’s not equivalent to full legalization, Nevada is already working on said regulations.

    Earlier this month, we learned that Google’s fleet of self-driving cars had logged over 300,000 miles, and the company planned to start sending out drivers solo. Google said that the next bit of testing would help their technology be able to handle tricky situations like snow-covered roadways and pop-up construction signals.

    Although Google is currently to first name associated with driverless technology, they certainly aren’t the only ones interested. Stanford University has been testing “Shelley,” their driverless Audi TTS that can zip around an advanced course at up to 120 mph.

    It’ll be interesting to see how many other states jump into the fray and start passing laws to regulate autonomous vehicles. As of now, states like Arizona, Hawaii, Florida, and Oklahoma are at least considering actions on the technology. In Florida’s case, they may run into a little bit of opposition.

    [via Ars Technica]

  • Take That, Google: This Self-Driving Car Tops Out at 120 MPH

    Take That, Google: This Self-Driving Car Tops Out at 120 MPH

    Though Google gets the most attention for their work, they are far from the only ones working on driverless car technology. And while Google is churning along, logging hundreds of thousands of miles with their fleet of Priuses and just recently Lexus hybrids, Stanford University feels the need – the need for speed.

    Stanford is showing off Shelley, their self-driving Audi TTS which can zip around the track at up to 120 MPH. This means that the car can complete the twisty three-mile course in just under 2 and 1/2 minutes.

    Thunderhill track consists of 15 turns – high speed turns, sharp turns after straightaways, and even a blind turn at the top of a hill. “Each one of these really represents a separate challenge for the car, and test a different part of out algorithm,” says engineer Chris Gerdes.

    They’re studying the difference between Shelley and a human driver. Apparently, human drivers can still tackle the course a little bit faster (just a few seconds).

    “We need to know what the best drivers do that makes them so successful,” Gerdes says. “If we can pair that with the vehicle dynamics data, we can better use the car’s capabilities.”

    It’s not just about impressive speed. And it’s also not just about building a system that will chauffeur people around after a night of too many martinis. It’s also about finding out the limits of drive-assist technology, which will continue to show up more and more in cars of the future.

    “The experience and data gathered by running Shelley around the track could one day lead to fully autonomous cars that safely drive you and your loved ones from Point A to Point B on public roads. In the nearer term, the technology could show up as a sort of onboard co-pilot that helps the driver steer out of a dangerous situation,” says Bjorn Carey of Standford News Service. “And while Gerdes and crew clearly enjoy racing Shelley, the truth is that pushing the car to its limits on the racetrack – its brake pads melted on its last Thunderhill run – is the best way to learn what type of stress a car is under in a crisis, and what it takes to get the car straightened out.”

    Check out Gerdes explaining the test run below:

    Google just announced that their fleet of driverless cars had topped 300,000 miles without incident. They said that some additional testing needs to be done, for instance training in inclement weather. But soon, they say they’ll cut them lose and finally remove the team member failsafe from the equation.

    States like Nevada and California are already taking steps to legalize and regulate self-driving cars. Google thinks that we’re inside a decade away from the technology being road ready, and automakers like Ford think we’re even closer than that.

    [via Singularity Hub]