{"id":965,"date":"2010-10-12T20:09:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T01:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/?p=965"},"modified":"2011-01-28T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T21:52:11","slug":"googles-self-driving-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/2010\/10\/12\/googles-self-driving-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"… and Google’s Self-Driving Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

It won’t be available anytime soon, but in the foreseeable future you might be a passenger in a Google-driven car. That’s right \u2013 Google engineers announced over the weekend<\/a> that they have already logged 140,000 miles on seven test cars that can drive themselves, apparently safely and soundly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The auto-cars \u2013 six Toyota Prius hybrids and \u00a0an Audi II \u2013 \u00a0feature a gizmo on the roof \u2013 a spinning, scanning laser \u2013 that relays information from a 200-foot diameter around the car, conveying who’s ahead, who’s behind, who’s on each side and what all those signs and lights are indicating. There are embedded cameras and sensors, too. These cars wouldn’t be cheap, at least not for a while.<\/p>\n

Google cars still have human drivers \u2013 humans will doubtless continue to be responsible under the law for what their automobiles do \u2013 but if one wants to use a cell phone, check a map or relate to the kids, fine, the “super cruise control” will take over.<\/p>\n

The Google-verse is getting ever more encompassing. Google is understandably proud of its vehicular breakthrough, which stems from Google Maps and Streetview, which have practically every roadside feature plotted already. Automated vehicles are likely to have lower emissions, burn less fossil fuel and move congestion along more smoothly and be involved in fewer accidents. They will be able to “swarm” more closely together if, on some future day, drivers are advised to run them that way \u00a0The Google cars have actually made their way safely along San Francisco’s hilly streets, with the police department being informed beforehand of their routes.<\/p>\n

Wondrous times these are, right? America’s competitiveness rests heavily with those California guys \u2013 at Google and the other Silicon Valley play stations \u2013 who are so ingenious technically and having so much fun in the process. \u2013 Doug Bedell <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It won’t be available anytime soon, but in the foreseeable future you might be a passenger in a Google-driven car. That’s right \u2013 Google engineers announced over the weekend that they have already logged 140,000 miles on seven test cars that can drive themselves, apparently safely and soundly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t