So long , jetpacks ! Our ego - driving motorcar has arrived . Burkhard Bilgerhas a summation of the fascinating build - upto the self - driving car and its hereafter in the New Yorker — and in this case the future tense is now . Now , the question is , are we really ready to start using it ?
“ Of the 10 million accidents that Americans are in every year , ” Bilger write , “ nine and a half million are their own deuced shift . ” Already , Google ’s ego - driving gondola is good than us at our own game . California drivers havealready started spotting Google ’s self - driving carout and about on the roads ( it ’s broadly moderately inconspicuous — minus the rooftop attachment , a big Google logo on its side , and a giant , fitly red killing switch wedged in between the two front seats ) . So far , it ’s run over half a million naut mi without an fortuity and the average American driver can only make it about half that far before we start knocking over traffic cone and hit curbs . But , at least so far , it still needs a bit of a human touch :
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-it-looks-like-to-have-the-future-pull-up-b-498388838
Of course , the data processor has always had a human equipment driver to take over in soused spots . Left to its own equipment , Thrun say , it could go only about fifty thousand mi on motorway without a major mistake . Google calls this the dog - food for thought microscope stage : not quite set for human expenditure . “ The risk is too high , ” Thrun says . “ You would never accept it . ” The elevator car has trouble in the rain , for case , when its laser bound off lustrous surface . ( The first drops call forward a small icon of a cloud onscreen and a voice monish that automobile - drive will presently disengage . ) It ca n’t tell sloshed concrete from juiceless or saucy asphalt from business firm . It ca n’t see a dealings cop ’s whistle or trace hand signal .
Still , despite their evident tendency to find a little gloomy when it rain down , the tilt of things the robo - driver can make for to the tabular array ( thoroughgoing attention , entire reminiscence of all traffic rules , and the ability to see in the shadow ) is moderately all-fired telling :
And yet , for each of its failings , the cable car has a corresponding metier . It never gets drowsy or distract , never wonders who has the right - of - path . It knows every turning , tree diagram , and streetlight forwards in accurate , three - dimensional detail . Dolgov was riding through a wooded domain one night when the car suddenly slow to a creep . “ I was thinking , What the hell ? It must be a germ , ” he told me . “ Then we noticed the cervid walking along the articulatio humeri . ” The car , unlike its riders , could see in the dark . Within a year , Thrun added , it should be safe for a hundred thousand miles .
So what do you sept think ? Are you quick to welcome our Modern automatic dealings overlords with undefendable arms ( and just look out any light drizzle in the parking deal ) or are you keeping both hands firmly ( at ten and two ) on the wheel ?
Image : romanboed .
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