that's really cool, but I dont see that application of it...
Maybe the perfect Nav system, makes the turns for you? Or maybe a taxi service... who knows?
Google’s self-driving car - SmartPlanet
Google’s self-driving car
By Deborah Gage | Oct 11, 2010 |
Google announced this weekend that it’s been building robotic cars that have been driving themselves around California — down curvy Lombard Street in San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, along the Pacific Coast Highway, around Lake Tahoe and from Google’s Mountain View headquarters to Santa Monica (a 350-mile trip). So far, the cars have logged over 140,000 miles.
The company hasn’t said yet what it’s going to do with the cars, but they should be a good business for Google, because they draw heavily on Google’s data centers.
From Google Distinguished Software Engineer Sebastian Thrun:
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. This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain.
The New York Times has a detailed story on the cars here, including a description of what it’s like to ride in one.
Tech blogger Robert Scoble, meanwhile, interviewed one of the engineers who works on the cars — Mike Montemerlo, formerly of Stanford’s DARPA challenge team — back in 2007. Google hired several veterans of DARPA challenge teams.
Montemerlo “thinks about the act of driving in a much different way than you or I do,” Scoble writes. “This is a fascinating discussion where he talks about the car, the sensors used, the algorithms he’s developing, and the approach he’s using to get a car through an intersection at the same time as another robotic car is there.”
Here’s a video of the car in action — there is a person behind the wheel, but he or she only takes control if something goes wrong. (The picture above is from Zee News).
This is so $#@!ing win it's not funny. Program the car for home and when you stumble your ass into the car it automatically takes you there. Drunk driving fatalities drop a $#@! LOAD.
Now if only you can have a robot with it that will drag your ass out of the car and into bed.
More like ALL fatalities go down by a $#@!load. Robots have a better reaction times so they can prevent accidents in general.
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK: VVVVVV? More like ZZZZZZ.
I wonder how this will affect the many industries that rely on cars being driven by people. Truck driving, taxis, buses, any other delivery service. Further job loss all around?
"Periculosum est solum ire! Hoc cape!"
There isn't anything practical to explore or learn from exploring to Pluto.
Improving robots and AI is far more important than exploring barren stretches of space. Believe me, I'm all for the space program but I'd rather we invest in robotics as it'll be more useful in the long run.
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK: VVVVVV? More like ZZZZZZ.
This.
As much as it may terrify some people, it is vitally important that computers begin to handle there own upgrades, starting from design then production and finally installation and repeating the cycle. Tightly confined parameter programs like these goggle cars are the best way to develop that exact technology. (imo)