Monday, November 01, 2010

Self-driving car. Answers

Google is testing a car it believes is the future of motoring. The Internet giant has been testing the car that drives itself for several months. It has driven along thousands of miles of public roads in California. The car is guided by sensors, lasers and video cameras. A Google spokesperson explained to concerned motorists that the car has never been driven “unmanned,” and had test drivers, just in case things went wrong. The tech company says its vehicles are still “very much at the experimental stage”. Google’s interest in artificial intelligence is a sign that it wants to branch out beyond the web. It is an extension of its Street View project, in which millions of streets have been photographed and put online.


Google’s blog said the company’s entry into the world of automotive technology is part of its plans to make the world a better place. “Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology,” it wrote. The post continued: “One of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last month that it was unfortunate that cars were invented before computers: “Your car should drive itself; it’s amazing to me that we let humans drive cars,” he told reporters.

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