Driverless vehicle could be originating from Google

A self-driving automobile is the objective of many research teams around the globe. Cars that drive themselves might have many advantages beyond the obvious security issues. The technology is being produced at Google's Lab X, among other establishments. But Google could produce the car as early as next year. This may be a massive advancement in the car industry. http://www.cardealexpert.com/

A huge Google project in Lab X

Sebastian Thrun started the project at Google’s Lab X even though he was not the first to work on robotic automobile designs. This project became important as Thrun lost somebody close to him. A close friend was in a car accident and died.

All out-of-the-box ideas that are created at Google start in Lab X. There are many Google employees that did not even know this facility existed because it is kept so quiet. Although most of the projects being developed there are still in the conceptual stage, two unnamed sources told the New York Times last month that one of the projects could see the manufacturing stage as soon as next year. The no-drive automobile may start being manufactured in the U.S. by Google, according to a various source.

Put on California roads

The experimental automobile was demonstrated at the TED technology conference in Long Beach, Calif., last year. Since that time, it has been unleashed on the California roads -- in the city and on the highway -- for testing. There is a video below that you can watch. It will show what some of this testing has looked like. Bystanders didn’t even realize this was a car driving itself because it worked so flawlessly, according to project leader Thrun.

Not a new idea

The 1939 World’s Fair was help in New York. Here, General Motors looked into what a self-driver car would do. There is satellite and computer technology now that change things. It becomes even more possible. Lasers, cameras and radar are all used with Global Positioning System to navigate things.

Help with traffic

The robotic automobile isn’t just used to conserve lives. It can help with the global gridlock problem too. There are a ton of individuals driving on the road, and more will come as time pushes forward. With all of these people, a bigger problem will soon be traffic congestion.

Ford CEO Bill Ford said at a March TED conference:

“The freedom of mobility that my great-grandfather brought to people is now being threatened. Global gridlock is going to stifle economic growth and our ability to deliver food and health care, particularly to people that live in city centers, and our quality of life is going to be severely compromised.”

Driving at a high speed would no longer be an issue with self-driving cars.

More developers looking into it

Robotic self-driving vehicles are in the process of being developed by General Motors, Volkswagen and BMW.

Sources

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/self-driving-car_n_1130568.html...

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-la... car, google&st=cse

Bloomberg Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/will-driverless-cars-become-the-new...

TED video: Sebastian Thrun and self-driving cars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp9KBrH8H04

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