Gadgetory

Google has been showing off its work on driverless cars for a few years now but up until this week those vehicles always used a human driver or two for backup there was a steering wheel brakes and gas just in case the computer conked out where a person needed to take over in an emergency but all that has changed with the introduction of Google's new completely autonomous vehicles the prototype car doesn't have a steering wheel or pedals and passengers are buckled in Twitter essentially backseats these cars aren't street-legal yet but while regulators iron out the details of when and where they can drive Google is intent on showing that automobiles are far safer without any input from us puny humans Rob Medford Google's director of safety on the driverless car project says that more than 90 percent of automobile accidents are caused by human error that adds up to around 33,000 people killed every year the leading cause of death for people between the ages of four and thirty-four Google's newest unit is purpose-built for safety the form factor means it's cameras and sensors have no blind spots and can detect objects for 360 degrees and as far as two hundred yards away the all-electric vehicle tops out at 25 miles per hour and has a front-end built of soft foam tweaks Google hopes will cushion any pedestrians struck head-on by the car the company acknowledges that an accident is inevitable but says collisions will be far less frequent and less dangerous than with humans behind the wheel google has been putting its first generation of driverless car systems through a series of tests on city streets around Mountain View it's the same system that's being used in these fully autonomous models the system can detect various obstacles and even color codes accordingly cyclists are red pedestrians yellow vehicles are either green or pink the system so far can detect cones construction zones railroad crossings and yes it knows when a bicyclist raises his hand to change lanes and then changes his mind at the last minute Google wants its cars to drive as if a human were behind the wheel to slow down going into a turn or to inch up at a four-way stop as a way to indicate it wants to go next for now Google's totally autonomous cars are operating just on a closed track with plans to eventually expand a city driving in Mountain View if and when they become illegal when that happens Google safety systems will likely be tested not just by chance but on purpose insurance fraud is already common among tractor trailers with scammers getting into accidents so they can sue for damages if people are willing to throw themselves in front of a speeding semi imagine what they'll do to a foam cushion car owned and operated by one of the richest companies on earth Google knows this is coming and it's doing its best to play things cool every driverless car is going to be equipped with multiple cameras that will record any accident meaning there'll be plenty of evidence to show who's really at fault as Sebastien through the original inventor of Google's driverless cars told the New York Times the big losers are going to be the trial lawyers