1. Google’s self-driving car
The Oatmeal, Matt, and Megan Mac Gregor
Nesbitt Library
We drink. We doze. We text. During a crash, 40% of drivers never even hit the brakes.1 We’re flawed organisms, barreling around at high speeds in vessels covered in glass, metal, distraction, and death.
Problem
Speeding
Alcohol
Texting
Figure 1. U.S. Crash Motor Vehicle Scope and
Selected Human and Environmental Factor Involvement. 2
Inexperience
The cars use a mixture of 3D laser- mapping, GPS, and radar to analyze and interpret their surroundings. The radar allows the car to see through objects, rather than relying on line-of-sight.
Remove the human from the driving equation.
Solution
Latest versions are fully electric with a range of about 100 miles.
Designed to look adorable. Psychological studies have been done whereby participants, when asked to harm an inanimate object, were less likely to hurt the object if it had a face.3
They're intended as moderate- distance couriers, with a max speed is 25 miles per hour.
Level of aggression can be adjusted in the software.
Figure 2 Google’s self driving car, which they have been working on for the past four years.
Change for the better
Besides freeing the roads from flawed drivers, autonomous vehicles have the ability to open up driving to a wider portion of the population. The lives of the elderly, and the disabled, 45% of whom still work could be transformed. 4 It could also eradicate the need for parking lots or garages or gas stations.
References
1. Calvin, “40 Percent of Drivers Never Hit their Brakes During a Crash” Save Breaking; Break Tech Therapy. , June 3, 2013.
2. Eno Center for Transportation, “Preparing a nation for autonomous vehicles; Opportunities, barriers and policy recommendations”,, October 2013
3. Gary D. Sherman, Jonathan Haidt, and James A. Coan, “Viewing Cute Images Increases Behavioral Carefulness” Emotion, 2009, Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 282–286.
4. Matthew W. Brault, “Current Population Reports” American with Disabilities: 2010, Household Economic Studies, Issued July 2012, p70-131