Autocars
As of June 2011, Google has a car which has driven itself 150,000 miles including navigating the tight
curves of snake-shaped Lombard street in San Francisco.
Here is part of an article on the subject:
Nevada recently became the first state in the nation to approve a driver’s license that allows people to
operate — or not operate — autonomous vehicles, fancy language for cars that drive themselves. Using
GPS, radar, lasers, cameras and artificial intelligence, the cars can drive neighborhood streets,
highways or winding mountain passes without any human intervention.
Google has been testing the technology in California, where self-driving cars aren’t specifically
prohibited by law, and the company lobbied Nevada legislators hard this session to pass the driver’s
license bill. Legislators approved it overwhelmingly, with only a few opposing votes.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is working on implementing the law and license. Those familiar with
the process said self-driving test cars will take to Nevada roads in a few months. In fact, several local
lawmakers have ridden in them. No terrain is off limits, and the vehicles will be unleashed in Las Vegas,
on desert highways and elsewhere.
“This is all brand new territory. We’re just getting started on it,” DMV spokesman Kevin Malone said.
“The goal is to move forward.”
The cars are still years from mass production. But everyday Nevadans, if able to get their hands on one,
could start driving them in less than a year, insiders say. The Sandoval administration is eager to fast-
track the licensing process.
Mountain View, Calif.,-based Google logged 140,000 miles of test drives in California but chose to come
to Nevada to push for legislation because of the state’s physical landscape and business climate.
“Nevada offers very good geographic opportunities, and the pro-business environment both from a tax
and regulatory standpoint offered an opportunity to show what autonomous vehicles can do,” said David
Goldwater, a lobbyist who works for Google but said he was not speaking on behalf of the company.
And although the Internet company has been out in front of regulation, it is far from the only entity
working on robot car technology. Software companies, vehicle manufacturers and universities all are
racing to develop technology they hope will one day become standard.
Robot car advocates argue the vehicles will save gas, time and lives. Computers take the place of
humans who make mistakes, get distracted and drive drunk. Sensors carefully maintain the distance
between cars so vehicles can drive closer together, cutting down on traffic. Less stop time saves gas
and prevents emissions, as does maintaining a steady driving speed.
“Our cars have sensors by which they can magically see everything around them and make decisions
about every aspect of driving. It’s the perfect driving mechanism,” Sebastian Thrun, head of the Google
project, said at a technology conference this year.
Not everyone agrees. Opponents point out the cars tread into uncharted legal territory. Who is liable if
one crashes and there is no human inside? The vehicles also haven’t been proven able to detect
another car’s turn signals or children suddenly darting into the road. Skeptics worry that Google might
use the technology to track people’s whereabouts and blast them with geographically tailored ads.
Goldwater chooses to see the positive, especially for Nevada. Being at the forefront of the robot car
universe could open doors for the state’s struggling economy.
“Nevada has created an environment that could very easily attract the intellectual talents of a number of
different companies,” Goldwater said. “The environment we created and getting the law ahead of the
technology, it should be very appealing to people who want to invest capital.”
The push could create a boom for engineers and investors. But it also could put another sector of Las
Vegans out of work: Tests for virtual valets already have been conducted using autonomous cars. The
robot vehicles drop their human passengers off at a desired location, then drive to a nearby garage and
settle into a parking space.
It’s a technology profit-hungry casinos are sure to embrace and one that would render flesh-and-blood
valets obsolete. But that may be the price of progress. How many science-fiction movies feature valets?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jun/26/self-driving-robot-cars-about-hit-nevada-highways/
DARPA contests in 2005 and 2007 were won on the basis that cars could drive themselves across open
spaces and in cities.
Sebastian Thrun is the professor at Stanford who led the team which won the contest in 2005 and came
in second place in 2007. He now works for Google and has developed a car which has navigated itself
between San Francisco and Los Angeles a number of times.
Infinity offers a few models of automobiles such as the M35h which can stay between lanes and not
creep up on the car in front of it on the highway. A radar system in the front of the car allows it to sense
how far it is from the car in front. If the car in front slams on its brakes, the M35h will slam them on if the
driver doesn't do it first.
Can the car read speed signs and know enough to stay below the speed limit?
Mercedes Benz offers cars in Europe that can read the speed limit signs.
Will cars be able to recognize other things in 15 years?
Here is an example of the current state of the art in object recognition:
"Deep one shot object recognition":
http://youtu.be/A7_D86QklTI
Next
As of June 2011, Google has a car which has driven itself 150,000 miles including navigating the tight
curves of snake-shaped Lombard street in San Francisco.
Here is part of an article on the subject:
Nevada recently became the first state in the nation to approve a driver’s license that allows people to
operate — or not operate — autonomous vehicles, fancy language for cars that drive themselves. Using
GPS, radar, lasers, cameras and artificial intelligence, the cars can drive neighborhood streets,
highways or winding mountain passes without any human intervention.
Google has been testing the technology in California, where self-driving cars aren’t specifically
prohibited by law, and the company lobbied Nevada legislators hard this session to pass the driver’s
license bill. Legislators approved it overwhelmingly, with only a few opposing votes.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is working on implementing the law and license. Those familiar with
the process said self-driving test cars will take to Nevada roads in a few months. In fact, several local
lawmakers have ridden in them. No terrain is off limits, and the vehicles will be unleashed in Las Vegas,
on desert highways and elsewhere.
“This is all brand new territory. We’re just getting started on it,” DMV spokesman Kevin Malone said.
“The goal is to move forward.”
The cars are still years from mass production. But everyday Nevadans, if able to get their hands on one,
could start driving them in less than a year, insiders say. The Sandoval administration is eager to fast-
track the licensing process.
Mountain View, Calif.,-based Google logged 140,000 miles of test drives in California but chose to come
to Nevada to push for legislation because of the state’s physical landscape and business climate.
“Nevada offers very good geographic opportunities, and the pro-business environment both from a tax
and regulatory standpoint offered an opportunity to show what autonomous vehicles can do,” said David
Goldwater, a lobbyist who works for Google but said he was not speaking on behalf of the company.
And although the Internet company has been out in front of regulation, it is far from the only entity
working on robot car technology. Software companies, vehicle manufacturers and universities all are
racing to develop technology they hope will one day become standard.
Robot car advocates argue the vehicles will save gas, time and lives. Computers take the place of
humans who make mistakes, get distracted and drive drunk. Sensors carefully maintain the distance
between cars so vehicles can drive closer together, cutting down on traffic. Less stop time saves gas
and prevents emissions, as does maintaining a steady driving speed.
“Our cars have sensors by which they can magically see everything around them and make decisions
about every aspect of driving. It’s the perfect driving mechanism,” Sebastian Thrun, head of the Google
project, said at a technology conference this year.
Not everyone agrees. Opponents point out the cars tread into uncharted legal territory. Who is liable if
one crashes and there is no human inside? The vehicles also haven’t been proven able to detect
another car’s turn signals or children suddenly darting into the road. Skeptics worry that Google might
use the technology to track people’s whereabouts and blast them with geographically tailored ads.
Goldwater chooses to see the positive, especially for Nevada. Being at the forefront of the robot car
universe could open doors for the state’s struggling economy.
“Nevada has created an environment that could very easily attract the intellectual talents of a number of
different companies,” Goldwater said. “The environment we created and getting the law ahead of the
technology, it should be very appealing to people who want to invest capital.”
The push could create a boom for engineers and investors. But it also could put another sector of Las
Vegans out of work: Tests for virtual valets already have been conducted using autonomous cars. The
robot vehicles drop their human passengers off at a desired location, then drive to a nearby garage and
settle into a parking space.
It’s a technology profit-hungry casinos are sure to embrace and one that would render flesh-and-blood
valets obsolete. But that may be the price of progress. How many science-fiction movies feature valets?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jun/26/self-driving-robot-cars-about-hit-nevada-highways/
DARPA contests in 2005 and 2007 were won on the basis that cars could drive themselves across open
spaces and in cities.
Sebastian Thrun is the professor at Stanford who led the team which won the contest in 2005 and came
in second place in 2007. He now works for Google and has developed a car which has navigated itself
between San Francisco and Los Angeles a number of times.
Infinity offers a few models of automobiles such as the M35h which can stay between lanes and not
creep up on the car in front of it on the highway. A radar system in the front of the car allows it to sense
how far it is from the car in front. If the car in front slams on its brakes, the M35h will slam them on if the
driver doesn't do it first.
Can the car read speed signs and know enough to stay below the speed limit?
Mercedes Benz offers cars in Europe that can read the speed limit signs.
Will cars be able to recognize other things in 15 years?
Here is an example of the current state of the art in object recognition:
"Deep one shot object recognition":
http://youtu.be/A7_D86QklTI
Next
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