Google’s Video of Its Self-Driving Car
The company has begun building a fleet of experimental electric-powered vehicles that can’t be driven by people and are summoned with a smartphone app.
By Google on Publish Date May 27, 2014.In “Google’s Driverless Cars Run Into Problem: Cars With Drivers,” Matt Richtel and Conor Dougherty write about the challenges facing autonomous vehicles.
Before Reading
Watch the video above produced by Google about its self-driving car.
- What are the possible benefits of autonomous vehicles that people in the video speak about?
- What do you think some of the challenges of self-driving cars might be?
After Reading
1. What’s the problem with Google’s driverless cars being programmed to follow the letter of the law? How can that lead to safety issues?
2. What is an example of a problem caused by a driverless car being “too safe”?
3. What are some of the hypothetical risks and real-world challenges of autonomous cars that testers are still trying to work out?
4. How have several automakers already blended human driving with self-driving technology in cars?
5. How soon do you think self-driving cars will be for sale to the general public? Do you think all cars will eventually be self-driving? Why?
Going Further
Imagine that Google hired you to make its driverless cars a little more “human.” Observe human drivers on the road, and make a list of 10 ways that humans don’t always follow the letter of the law. To get started with your list, you can use some of the examples mentioned in the article. Then, select which items on the list Google should program into its autonomous vehicles so they behave more like human drivers. For each item you select, explain why it’s a characteristic Google’s robot drivers should adopt.
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