bradleydad
It amusing, I suppose, to see this thing break traffic laws in this video. I'm surprised they didn't edit it out. For example, proceding across a crosswalk whils pedistrians are crossing. (one minute and 22 seconds) It doesn't matter if the pedistrians are crossing against the light. The article doesn't say how many tickets they have gotten.
christopher
I saw one yesterday turn into a near-empty carpark, and noticed it was going ridiculously slowly. I wonder how many of those 7 rear-enders were "encouraged" somehow by the car. Who's fault is it *really* if the dude in front of you slows unexpectedly and/or too rapidly? And this is not a human driver - it knows what's going on behind it at *all* times. Is it programmed to "not care" if the accident that happens "isn't it's fault" ?
Humans avoid all accidents by instinct usually, not just the ones they're not causing.
Rigby5
The article is misleading. That is not a normal driving record. I have not had an accident in over 40 years, and I probably drive twice as much as most people, with long cross country trips a least once a year. They claim the accidents were not the fault of the autonomous system, but the reality is that all accidents can be avoided. It is up to everyone to drive defensively. When Google Cars were rear-ended, side swiped, and hit once by a car running a stop sign, all of those could have been avoided. I would have likely been able to avoid them. Most people likely could have avoided them. For example, if you are watching, it is obvious when someone is not slowing down for a stop sign. Unless you are driving a huge semi truck, there is no excuse for letting someone hit you from running a stop sign.
Bob Flint
Interesting to hear they are taking into account the assertiveness needed in the system. There are always aggressive, and shy drivers, and every combination in between.
Having everyone perfectly in sync is the goal, but not realistically achievable at an economy of scale and adopted by everyone. Considering the billions of pedestrians, skateboarders, cyclists, motorcycles, cars, trucks, and things that don't belong on the road throughout the planet.
Morton Sprawl
@Rigby5 You probably don't drive much in Silicon Valley, either. Drivers, here, are nuts, and the traffic is worse. If they took one of those Google cars out to Tennessee it could probably drive 100 years without any accidents.
I think it'd be great for longer road trips to just let the car drive. Replace "cruise control" with "automatic pilot." Require it for convicted drunk drivers.
GregCocchiaro
This is so cool! Pretty exciting to see how smart the system is getting, able to notice cones, construction, cyclists, etc... I wonder if it is able to use visual cues on roads with no lines... Where I live, the lines always get scraped off during the winter and in spring it's sometimes hard to tell even for me where the lanes are... I wonder what this car would do?
Madlyb
@Rigby5
The only to always avoid an accident is to not to drive in the first place.
Personally I have been driving about 35 years and I have been 4 accidents...mostly when I was younger. One of those 3 was my fault (had a tire blow and over corrected) and of the remaining 3, only one could have potentially been avoided and that would have required absolute perfect response and correction on my part.
Stephen N Russell
Google I volunteer to drive your Lexsus SUV for the So CA market. Or future models IF any planned Sent PO mail to Hqs. Thanks.
Grunchy
I once worked for a trucking company, and there were numerous drivers who had millions of miles over decades of travel without any accidents whatsoever. If you were to honestly look at a typical accident, where one or both drivers deny responsibility, you would probably find each driver had an inkling of danger yet didn't act on it. It is troubling for me to hear that Google's car got run into yet it didn't try to sound its horn, flash its lights, or otherwise attempt to get out of the way.
xs400
Nice, but when will it be able to drive in India???