Google’s latest venture? Cars with Artificial intelligence

Estate Agents will never believe what Google has been experimenting with.

An article by the New York Times claims that cruising at exactly the speed limit along the streets and highways of California, 6 Toyota Prius and one Audi TT have been turning heads.

This has been a secret project to test Google’s latest venture – cars that drive themselves.

Using an on-board computer, 360-degree sensor, satellite navigation and two calm people (one to monitor the on-board computer and the other to physically intervene in case of danger) has been driving around 140,000 miles of road to test the ‘robocar’ in real world situations.

Slightly worried about letting a computer take control of your car – well you shouldn’t be. During the 140,000 miles the driver only had to take over twice! Once because a car stopped and started to reverse into a parking space and another time because a person on a cyclist had ran a red light.

Reviewing the data, they could clearly see that the ‘robocar’ had not only spotted the cyclist but had already planned a safe route.

Could this be the future of driving? Will Estate Agents simply get into their cars, say the location of their next viewing and then sit back and enjoy the ride?

If this prediction of the future is true it means that cars will be able to safely drive closer together therefore doubling the capacity of the UK’s roads.

What about drinking and driving?

In my view, we will simply not be able to get in the car after a few too many drinks and murmur ‘home’. Legally drivers will most likely be responsible for the vehicle and be ready to intervene at any point.

A point is also made in the article, currently our desktop PCs will ‘crash’ from time to time and the on-board system for the ‘robocar’ cannot even have the slightest possibility of a system crash. Obviously a system crash on-board a computer will have grave consequences for the people involved which means that this idea could never really be put into commercial use.

James Coyne – eMarketing and Social Media Consultant