This article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=science
It’s a futuristic vision society has had since the dawn of the automobile: cars that drive themselves. We see it all the time in movies and books and art. Many drivers now wouldn’t even think of leaving home without a GPS system guiding the way. Some cars even beep now when they are approaching something and in danger of hitting it. This push towards autonomous automobiles is a dream we just can’t seem to get out of our heads. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), mechanical/computer engineers are beginning to make huge steps in turning this dream into a reality.
The story, written by John Markoff, talks about the recent advances in autonomous driving made by Google. Apparently, they don’t spend all their time and money on just the internet because they’ve developed an artificial intelligence system for cars that literally drives for you, through highway traffic, stopping for stoplights, even down some of the windiest roads in San Francisco. “But of course, to be truly safer, the cars must be far more reliable than, say, today’s personal computers, which crash on occasion and are frequently infected.” A good note by Markoff—even though this autonomous automobile is already looking good, there’s still a lot of research to be done before it goes into mass production.
Markoff writes a solid article here, keeping it interesting all the way through, and touching on the greater topics of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. A discussion on the ethic of it all is rightly left out—it is a news story, even though it has a freshness and modernity in its writing that would make Google proud.
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