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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Automobots

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  It appears that Google is behind a robot car project designed to take the human error out of driving.  They took some Priuses and outfitted them with sensors, computers, and gadgetry so they could driver themselves.  The robot cars can react quicker to obstacles and therefore travel closer together than human drivers.  The automobots could use fuel more efficiently by keeping itself in peak shape and not having the lead foot some of us have.  With a navigation system equipped with speed limits and road conditions, the robot obeys all traffic laws.  A driver, I mean occupant, can get to their destination well rested because they could sleep on the trip. The vehicle can be programmed with a more defensive or aggressive driving profile depending on how much of a hurry you are in. The nobel principle here is that the car can mimic human decisions on the road without being distracted or impaired and thus get in less collisions.  
Of course I’m going to take this to the obvious next step. If the robot is so smart, will you need a license?  Could you just have your children delivered to and picked up from school?  If an animal runs out in front of the vehicle and it needs to decide wether to kill or drive into oncoming traffic, what will it do?  When it reaches its service interval, will the car just go leaving you stranded. If there is an accident, and the robot is driving, who is at fault?  I have more questions than answers about the wisdom of this whole thing.
Let's say an  automobot is an alcohol burning, super charged, 800 horsepower Mustang.  It could be sent south of the border on package runs with a program profile not to care about any Priuses and to take evasive actions, when necessary, to deliver "cargo"on time and without stops.” Oh yeah, lets give it weapons for self preservation.

What do you Think?

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