Google Wants Cars To Behave More Like Humans

These tactics may have an adverse reaction on human drivers, especially when you consider Google’s cars have been rear-ended 12 times out of 16 total accidents.

“We want to get an idea of how the testing programs are proceeding throughout the state, because for us the No. 1 priority is the safety of the motoring public”, he said, “and we need to ensure that [with] any regulations we develop … the motoring public is safe as the technology is deployed”.

Google is studying various awkward moments in driving for now, and also a few general driving behaviors to try and capture those into an algorithm that would make its cars drive more “humanistically”. “Traffic has a cost on society and individuals”. The testing phase has already extended to Austin and Texas the search giant having also developed a new form of the vehicle.

“In my rides, a number of times they’ve really impressed me and I’ve gained an appreciation for the 360-degree awareness, maybe when it swerves when someone does something sudden, where I would slam on the brakes”.

Do they take the habits of an 80 yr old with a hat, a pipe and a tweed jacket, or do they plot how a 19 yr old with pants with a long crutch behind the wheel of a pimped-out vehicle chipped to the max drives? But there’s a lot of potential for this tech to change how communities work, to give access to people underserved by transportation. For instance, a Google self-driving auto once encountered a person in a wheelchair chasing a turkey.

Alistair Barr and Mike Ramsey of the Journal explain that Google officials have found that sometimes computers can be a little too good at following the rules and that propensity can frustrate passengers as well as other drivers the cars are sharing the road with.

Ultimately, Brin sees autonomous cars as inevitable given both today’s growing traffic issues as well as the mounting ubiquity of distracting technology.

Google says the problem isn’t so much with the autonomous driving system as it is with human drivers around it. Because the Google vehicle is overly cautious, it tends to assume the worst and apply the brakes when such actions may not be necessary. “It’s not the end of the world, but it speaks to the challenge with all the phones and other distractions of our modern age”.