Self-Driven Cars

It is always amazing to see the rapid rate at which technology is growing. California is the latest state to allow testing of Google’s self-driving cars on the roads, though only with human passengers along as saftey means. Google co-founder Sergey Brin hopes that self-driving cars will be able to drive on public streets in five years or less. The cars use a combination of technologies, including radar sensors on the front, video cameras aimed at the surrounding area, various other sensors and artificial-intelligence software that helps steer. So far, the cars have been driven for more than 300,000 miles and 50,00 of those miles were without any intervention from the human drivers.

There is no doubt that it took hundreds and hundreds of hours to design and create these cars. The process in which was undertaken in order to get these cars done was one similar to a technique taught to us in class the “Deming Cycle”. Designers and engineers had to create a plan, manufacture the project, check the project and finally fix any problems if there were any. Also, when these cars do go into the market, the creators of these cars are going to have to do an instruction manual on how to use the machine. This is similar to the activity we did with the M&M’s, they are going to have to be very thrall for the average person to follow step by step on how to use it.

There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the future of transportation. We will eventually live in a society where there will be no human drivers. How will those big car fanatics respond to this? How long will it take for humans to fully be okay with giving full driving power to a machine? And will all current car manufactures be able to survive this new age of transportation?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/tech/innovation/self-driving-car-california/index.html?npt=NP1

4 thoughts on “Self-Driven Cars

  1. This article is a good example of the Deming cycle and it shows that it can be applied to many situations. I am sure many people will fall on both sides, those for self driving cars and those against. I can see many people being concerned with safety whether they are in the car or on the road with one. I believe it will cause a lot of problems for the car manufacturer companies and if self-driving cars do actually become the future these companies will have no choice but to produce them.

  2. I agree that people will be against and for the idea of self driving cars. There are going to be big controversies over this idea because of computer error. In order for people to accept this, companies are going to have to demonstrate zero defects, which I do not see technology being capable of this in the next five years. Also, this software is not going to be cost effective for customers because price plays a major factor in customer satisfaction.

  3. This is big news within the technology/ automobile industry. I believe at first, most people will be against it because it is a new product in the market, but once people see other customers being satisfied with the this product, then i can see it being in favor of most consumers. I am kind of skeptical of this because it is a scary thought to think that people might not being driving in about ten to fifteen years. I wonder if traffic will still be an issue when and if the automobile industry becomes one hundred percent computerized.

  4. Giving humans the choice to never drive again is a pretty good idea! On the bright side, if the technology is functioning smoothly, maybe there can be a new market similar to that of a cruise ship. Instead of having a driver sit behind a wheel, he/she can interact with his/her passengers more frequently. Perhaps build bigger cars filled with entertainment, similar to that of a cruise ship.

    On the other hand, I disagree that there will be no more human drivers. So rest assure shana! I think there will still be some people who want to drive their cars. Perhaps one reason is the feeling of being able to drive 100 mph down a highway in the middle of the day and risk getting caught for speeding? In addition, I would have to imagine that hackers are interested in manipulating the software, which can lead to problems. This could potentially lead to intervention of civil and criminal courts.

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