Google Driverless Car: Are We Ready?

Imagine a car that did the driving for you, a steering wheel that moves on its own, looks in all directions at all times, follows all driving laws and regulations such as driving the speed limit, putting the turning signal and merging on the highway. From public roads to highways, the autonomous car does it all. It constantly reacts to our surroundings and measures acceleration and rotation all at once. The Google Driverless car works hand in hand with a sensor on top of the vehicle, video cameras inside the automobile and radars that are located all over the exterior of the car. The radar and scanners are associated with 64 lasers that are able to calculate the distance between you and the car in front of you, make quick decisions, use gps features and anything else you can think of. We are able to do unimaginable things such as not worrying about parking when going to class and being able to put make up on, brush our hair, read, write, text, talk on the phone and do just about everything.

The creator of the autonomous car, Sebastian Thrun, is a German robotics developer and computer scientist. He is also the CEO of Udacity and a research professor at Stanford University in Computer Science. After Thrun lost his best friend to a car accident, he decided to create a safer way to drive with this innovation. As stated in his Ted Talk performance, Thrun goes on to say that the Google Driverless car has been proven to drive better than humans thus safer, easier and stress free. “Currently, there have been cars already out with certain self-driving features such as traffic jam assistance, pre collision systems and cruise control maneuvers. However, there hasn’t been a car out where human contact is practically obsolete and applicable by the systems techniques until now. Although, it hasn’t been predicted in when it will come out, it is in progression and already been tested. Researchers of all auto companies such as Toyota, Lexus, Audi, BMW have been working for decades in creating autonomous driving technologies. With $150,000 in equipment and a $70,000 laser radar system, the car can be estimated to be too expensive for consumers today. This is easily an upcoming revolution on the road that many are contemplating and intrigued by. 

*Citations of pictures and where the innovation idea was gotten from in first comment