Looks like the days of autonomous driving seen in movies like “I, Robot” is coming in closer to reality as Google’s self-driven cars had just been given the green light to roam the roads of Nevada for testing by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
Being the first of such license to ever be issued in the U.S., Google’s application for a license plate was approved after going through a series of test-drives around Nevada, including in the ever-busy Las Vegas Strip itself.
“The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error. Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analyzing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely”, said the California state Senator Alex Padilla during the introduction of the state’s autonomous car legislation.
The car will be using an array of sensors which includes video cameras, radar, lasers and also information gathered from manually-driven cars in assisting its navigation. So supposedly, this car could already be roaming the roads on its own, even without having anyone in it. But that is not possible for the time being as the state still requires two persons to be in the test car the whole time; one behind the driver’s seat, and the other monitors the car via an onboard computer. And if an error or glitch occurs during the test, the human driver could simply take control by applying the brakes or taking over the steering wheel.
For the time being, Google has applied to license three vehicles, and the cars will bear red license plates with an “infinity” symbol on the left side of the plate to imply that it is a car of the future.
Google autonomous car - YouTube
So probably in a few years time after the technology has been perfected, will we see such cars cruising around the roads over here in Malaysia? Or is it much better to leave the job of driving around to ourselves instead?
