It's finally come true, Asimov law of robotics will now be enforced, forget the film with Will Smith, Google is going to conquer the world. Hey, what's this you are talking about you ask?
During May this year Google famously licensed an automated car to drive within the state of Nevada (USA), home of Area 42 and all things (supposedly) alien. So quite fitting really, but this has nothing to do with the Fall of Man and any impending invasion by robots, no, this is clearly about being lazy. The US (DARPA) millitary have been running competitions to see if an autonomous vehicle can perform a series of rugged tests (not just crossing a road or messing around) that involve roads, traffic and cross country. Recently more and more contestants have successfully completed these, with Stanford University being key winners and working in tandem with Google on their car. I believe to date, Google have driven this car like 200,000 miles or something higher without any accidents, which is quite amazing really.
I believe this could be aimed at the stupid, the lazy and useless, imagine looking forward a few years, your car takes you to work (if you have a job), it takes the best route and avoids traffic by listening to traffic information whilst you sit and do what? Play on you Ipad 7 or your Google sponsored chromebook, maybe watch a film on the dashboard, since there is no need for it you may as well appropriate this as a cinema screen and if your not driving why not swap the seats for beds??? You may also suggest that children will be able to drive themselves places to, so parents are free to do their own thing, knowing full well they will arrive safely at their sporting practise or dance class, so its all good then?
Well, lets think about this, its not really that simple, yes its autonomous, so it drives itself, however there is one large disclaimer here. The car works by using navigational information, so in other words you have to drive the car along everywhere first so it can remember it and save it for future. Obviously Google's journey across America has highlighted their reason for this project - safety. They aimed to save many lives caused by accidents with human drivers, so quite a bold step to replace us at the wheel.
I think it's a great project personally, anything that helps save lives is important, but there are massive technology issues to sort and how can a computer react to the unknown or changes in weather, road conditions or layouts? Also if it's using GPS what about in cities where large buildings block the signal, or tunnels etc.
In summary helping humans advance, but another skill set we may lose, our great great grandchildren may have no concept of what hands on driving is!
What's Area 42 mate (apart from an alcoholics anonymous group in Nevada)? I think that this will eventually become a custom chauffeur which is a good idea, especially as it will mean no drunk drivers on the roads or speeding kids. And if people can't joyride cars then there's another positive. Onwards and upwards. As long as it runs on biofuel of course...
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