Sunday, February 28, 2016

Road Testing

If you've been following my blog so far, you'd know that I`ve covered the topic of safety. We could talk about safety, what they are doing to make the car safe, in the case of autonomous car, the technology behind it but, none of it really mean anything without road testing and real world implications and use.

 Up to this point, I have only spoken about the Google Self-Driving Car project, but there are many companies who are creeping up behind Google, trying to take their spotlight. When I say this, I don`t necessarily mean literally taking their spotlight. Companies such as Audi, Toyota and Lexus have volunteered to work with Google to produce their idea. When I say taking their idea, I mean they want to take credit, if it even ends up happening, for the creation of the autonomous car.

"A Toyota Prius modified to operate as a Google driverless car, navigating a test course"

"In 2012, the test group of vehicles included six Toyota Prius, an Audi TT, and three Lexus RX450h, each accompanied...dozen drivers with unblemished driving records and...one of Google's engineers. By May 2015, that fleet consisted solely of 23 Lexus SUVs."

In 2012, Google posted a video of 95% blind man going for a ride in the autonomous car. Mister Steve Mahan, from Morgan Hill, California, when he went for the car ride he went to several different place around town, then back home. From what I can see, he is very happy to see that he can now take personal transport and not worry about it and he is also astonished that the car can do this all for him.

On the official website for the google car project, it says that Google has test-drived their car over a million miles so far. "We’ve self-driven over 1 million miles and are currently out on the streets of Mountain View, CA, Austin, TX and Kirkland, WA." 
Although that is much testing, they are determined to continue to testing the vehicle. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_self-driving_car
https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/where/

3 comments:

  1. Hey David, your topic is interesting and I really like how you've mentioned the little story of Mr. Steve Mahan. I can see the positive effects that a self-driving car could do. I love your choice of pictures and how you are able to keep us interested including also a video. Keep on posting, I will surely continue to read!

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  2. Hey David, I like your blog, it's really interesting. I don't remember where but I think I heard somewhere that the google car crashed. Is that true? If so what does it mean for the safety of these cars and will they ever truly replace the cars we have today?

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  3. Hey David, I really like your topic choice and it's a great idea for a blog. Safety is something we should all be following while driving a car so we do not get hurt. I've been wondering if they will ever have a plane that could transform into a car? Is this true? I will be reading the rest of your blog I can't wait!

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