Like Uber, Google is intent on developing self-driving cars for urban taxi use — reasoning that the slow speeds and relatively predictable environment of city streets that can be thoroughly, digitally mapped is the best and safest near-term purpose of autonomous vehicles. But for Uber, such cars are not a side bet but a way to be more fully in control of its business by eliminating the need for drivers who expect to be paid.
“Uber arguably has more at stake in creating self-driving cars than any other automotive entity,” Mr. Brauer said.
Google teaches its car to be nice to cyclists
Cyclists face a variety of dangers sharing the road with cars, but Google wants to make sure its autonomous car is mindful of bikes on the road, unlike some human drivers.
In its monthly report, Google describes how it has been programming its self-driving system to recognize cyclists and be nice to them.
.. Google gave two examples of the car being extra cautious around cyclists, the first is if it notices a parallel parked car with the door open, it will slow down to let the cyclist pass without fear of a collision.
Tesla and Google Take Different Roads to Self-Driving Car
The experiment convinced the engineers that it might not be possible to have a human driver quickly snap back to “situational awareness,” the reflexive response required for a person to handle a split-second crisis.
.. So Google engineers chose another route, taking the human driver completely out of the loop. They created a fleet of cars without brake pedals, accelerators or steering wheels, and designed to travel no faster than 25 miles an hour.
.. At the soonest, Google says it hopes to put such vehicles on the market by 2019.
.. Significantly, Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, has not joined the rush to self-driving. It has established a research laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., that does not aim to make a car that drives itself, but instead a “guardian angel” — a computerized system that would take over only when the human driver made an error.
.. Automotive engineers at work on autonomous vehicles refer to a design challenge they call “overtrust,” the possibility that humans may not fully understand the limitations of the self-driving safety features they rely on.
.. “Beta products shouldn’t have such life-and-death consequences,” said Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who owns a Tesla Model S.
Cars and the Future
The problem is that traffic conditions can change rapidly; as of last year, for example, Google’s cars couldn’t handle a temporary stoplight. In other words, it’s not simply that Google needs to map the entire world in far more detail than they have previously — after all, the fact they have already done it shows just how capable the company is! — but rather that the maps need to be updated far more frequently than Google Street view ever needed to be
.. What I suspect is happening with TV is a little more nuanced than long-standing cable customers getting fed up with the cost of bundled TV and cutting the cord. Rather, young people, who have grown up in a very different entertainment environment than their parents — i.e. an online one — are simply not signing up in the first place. The decline, slight as it is, is the older generation that was raised on TV dying off.
.. Instead, the change is gradual. Netflix here, a bit of YouTube there. Or, in the case of cars, first hybrids and assisted parking, later electric vehicles that look and operate like normal cars, and the ability to take your hands off the wheel on the highway.
.. Meanwhile, a new generation that doesn’t understand why you would want to sit behind the wheel — much less own the damn thing — when you could instead be on your smartphone is coming of age. It’s a bit over-used at this point but the Ernest Hemingway quote about bankruptcy seems appropriate:
“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”