| Could a Self-Driving Car Be in Our Future? Posted: 24 Jan 2012 10:13 AM PST  As a kid growing up in New Jersey I went to the New York World’s Fair a bunch of times. The single exhibit that I remember best is this one: the General Motors self-driving car. I remember seeing a typical American family (whatever that is) playing checkers or something while the car drove itself down the highway. I’ve been waiting 45 years for this invention to come to light. And here they are: Google invented them! The New York Times has a story on it today:
What happens if a police officer wants to pull one of these vehicles over? When it stops at a four-way intersection, would it be too polite to take its turn ahead of aggressive human drivers (or equally polite robots)? What sort of insurance would it need? These and other implications of what Google calls autonomous vehicles were debated by Silicon Valley technologists, legal scholars and government regulators last week at a daylong symposium sponsored by the Law Review and High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. Over the last two years, Google and automobile makers have been lobbying for legislative changes to permit autonomous vehicles on the nation's roads. Nevada became the first state to legalize driverless vehicles last year, and similar laws have now been introduced before legislatures in Florida and Hawaii. Several participants at the Santa Clara event said a similar bill would soon be introduced in California.
Does anyone else remember that World’s Fair exhibit? |
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