Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com Autoblog http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Google sees self-driving cars in 3-5 years; Washington, insurers not so sure]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/08/google-sees-self-driving-cars-in-3-5-years-washington-insurers/http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/08/google-sees-self-driving-cars-in-3-5-years-washington-insurers/http://www.autoblog.com/2013/02/08/google-sees-self-driving-cars-in-3-5-years-washington-insurers/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Self-driving Google Prius test car

In just a handful of years, autonomous car technology has taken amazing strides forward. In particular, the highly visible Google self-driving car effort has garnered loads of media attention for its impressive and fast-evolving technology. In fact, Google is reasonably confident that its autonomous technology can be brought to the marketplace in the next three to five years.

Whether or not the marketplace is in any shape to accept a self-driving car in that timespan is a much trickier question.

A new report by Bloomberg examines the relationship between autonomous tech and the regulations that must certainly come along with it before these kinds of auto-piloted cars show up in a dealership near you. Google maintains that self-driving cars can be made to "drive safer than people do," saving lives in the process. Meanwhile, regulating bodies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have to figure out how the cars will be road-tested for safety and where new standards will be set. How a vehicle's software is able to react to fluid and random driving scenarios, for example, will need to be somehow be tested to meet a high standard of performance.

Reaction from the insurance industry is likely to slow down the arrival of autonomous cars, as well, says Bloomberg. While, as a whole, the insurance companies have claimed to be in favor of self-driving's accident-prevention possibilities, the reality of liability claims muddy the waters. Some insurance experts predict that these issues could cause it to be as long as 15 or 20 years before the way is clear for self-driving cars in the US - decades, in other words, behind the pace of the technology itself.

Check out the full Bloomberg story, with a lot more detail around this complex issue, here.

Google sees self-driving cars in 3-5 years; Washington, insurers not so sure originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>autonomousautonomous vehiclesgooglegoogle carinsurance information institutenational highway trafiic safety administrationnhtsaself-drivingself-driving carFri, 08 Feb 2013 09:29:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/20452459/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2013/02/08/google-sees-self-driving-cars-in-3-5-years-washington-insurers/20452459/article-detail.xml 20452459 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/02/google-self-driving-car-628_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/02/google-self-driving-car-628.jpg <![CDATA[Apple testifies in court that it once considered making a car]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/04/apple-testifies-in-court-that-it-once-considered-making-a-car/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/04/apple-testifies-in-court-that-it-once-considered-making-a-car/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/08/04/apple-testifies-in-court-that-it-once-considered-making-a-car/#commentsFiled under: ,

Apple license plate

In the ongoing court battle between Apple and Samsung over copyrights and patents, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing took the stand yesterday. The majority of his testimony was centered around tablets and smartphones, and what defines intellectual property, but at one point he revealed a big nugget. Schiller told the court that Apple had been considering other projects well before smartphones, including a camera, and designing a car.

Schiller also claimed that Samsung copied, stole, and ripped-off Apple's designs in creating their own smartphones.

While Google is the tech giant most heavily involved in the automobile business with its autonomous car, it is unclear what direction Apple would have taken. Perhaps a new system of touch screen gestures to control the car. We can't be sure, other than to speculate based on a single comment from a lengthy testimony on tablets and smartphones.

Apple testifies in court that it once considered making a car originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 Aug 2012 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>appleapple carapple icarautonomousgoogle caricariphonesmart carSat, 04 Aug 2012 17:35:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/20293429/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2012/08/04/apple-testifies-in-court-that-it-once-considered-making-a-car/20293429/article-detail.xml 20293429 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/08/apple-license-plate-opt-opt_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/08/apple-license-plate-opt-opt.jpg <![CDATA[Google approaching automakers to help build self-driving cars]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/01/google-approaching-automakers-to-help-build-self-driving-cars/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/01/google-approaching-automakers-to-help-build-self-driving-cars/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/01/google-approaching-automakers-to-help-build-self-driving-cars/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Google Inc. wants self driving cars on the road sooner rather than later.

It knows its autonomous vehicles work - engineers have already put its fleet of self-driving vehicles through 250,000 miles of testing. And they're planning to put another 750,000 testing miles on their expanding fleet.

Now, executives are approaching car makers about building the self-driving vehicles, according to The Detroit News.

"From giving the technology away to licensing it to working with Tier 1s, Tier 2s, working with the OEMs, building a car with them, everything is open and we're trying to figure out which paths make the most sense," said Google project manager Anthony Levandowski last week at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit. "We're talking to basically every car company to see what their level of excitement is and how do we work with them."

A Google spokesperson later added, "We're talking with lots of auto companies about a variety of topics, but we haven't decided how we may make our technology available to consumers. As Anthony said at the SAE conference in Detroit, 'all options are open.'"

Levandowski says Google is racing forward to get self-driving vehicles on the road as soon as possible. It has begun talking to insurance companies to figure out how much it might cost to insure a self-driving car, according to CNET. One of the sticky issues: If a self-driving vehicle causes an accident, is the driver responsible or the company that made the vehicle?

Google officials say they expect to mathematically prove that computer-driven vehicles are safer than those operated by humans, thus insurance prices should be lower. No word yet if that logic will fly, but insurance companies do love math, algorithms and actuary tables...

Google approaching automakers to help build self-driving cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 May 2012 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>autonomousdriverlessdriverless-cargooglegoogle carTue, 01 May 2012 18:29:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/20227455/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2012/05/01/google-approaching-automakers-to-help-build-self-driving-cars/20227455/article-detail.xml 20227455 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/05/google-execs-autonomous_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/05/google-execs-autonomous.jpg <![CDATA[How autonomous cars are about to change our future]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/27/how-autonomous-cars-are-about-to-change-our-future/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/27/how-autonomous-cars-are-about-to-change-our-future/http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/27/how-autonomous-cars-are-about-to-change-our-future/#commentsFiled under: ,

New Technology Aims To Take Your Hands Off The Steering Wheel

autonomous car

The biggest hurdles to autonomous cars will be legal, not technical.

Most car enthusiasts hate the idea of cars that can drive themselves. But autonomous cars will get here faster than most people realize. Slowly but surely, automobiles are doing more of our driving for us. It's only a matter of time before they take over completely.

Just look at how much control we've already ceded to the computers under the hood. Anti-lock brakes, which are consistently better at threshold braking than mere mortals, are pretty much standard equipment. So are traction control and stability control. We now have blind spot detection, lane departure warning, active lane control, and even self-parking.

Now comes the next step. Mercedes-Benz and Audi recently demonstrated Traffic Jam Assist, which uses adaptive cruise control and automatic steering to completely take control of a car up to 60 kilometers an hour (about 37 mph). Google has racked up tens of thousands of miles on its fleet of fully autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids on California roads. The technology will be showroom ready before the end of the decade.

The biggest hurdles will be legal, not technical. For example, who's at fault when one of these cars gets in an accident? And how will the police pull over an autonomous car if they need to? But we'll resolve those issues, and when we do, autonomous cars will have a bigger impact on society than when the first horseless carriages appeared over a century ago.

John McElroyJohn McElroy is host of the TV program "Autoline Detroit" and daily web video "Autoline Daily". Every month he brings his unique insights as a Detroit insider to Autoblog readers.

Continue reading How autonomous cars are about to change our future

How autonomous cars are about to change our future originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Autoline on Autoblogautonomousautonomous cardriverless cargooglegoogle carjohn mcelroyTue, 27 Mar 2012 16:55:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/20202076/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2012/03/27/how-autonomous-cars-are-about-to-change-our-future/20202076/article-detail.xml 20202076 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/03/autonomous-car_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/03/autonomous-car.jpg <![CDATA[Google to build driverless cars in the U.S.?]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/14/google-to-build-driverless-cars-in-the-u-s/http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/14/google-to-build-driverless-cars-in-the-u-s/http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/14/google-to-build-driverless-cars-in-the-u-s/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Google Car

In the midst of a longer piece on the top-secret Google X lab, The New York Times drops this bomb: "Google may turn one of the ideas - the driverless cars that it unleashed on California's roads last year - into a new business."

It was just over a year ago when the world first heard of Google's experiments, deploying Toyota Prius hatchbacks in California to rack up test miles of its self-driving vehicle system. Google launched the program in secret, but has since given presentations on the technology and the company's goals for its deployment. Currently, the cars must have a human behind the wheel to act as a potential override to the system, but Google has indicated that it would like the system to get to the point that it operates free of human intervention. Google is currently working towards racking up over a million driverless miles.

While the Times report says that Google is considering building these autonomous cars in the U.S., we've got to believe that this is nothing more than conjecture. Even for a company as large and well-funded as Google, deciding to go into the carmaking business is not something you just jump into, especially not when your sales strategy involves a bleeding edge technology and you haven't shown any desire or aptitude for designing or building nearly any other aspect of an automobile. Autonomous driving tech could be a truly transformative feature, but developing it and selling it to the industry as a supplier would seem to make much more sense, and it would doubtlessly hasten its arrival to the market.

Check out the TED Talks video after the jump to get up to speed on Google's efforts.

Continue reading Google to build driverless cars in the U.S.?

Google to build driverless cars in the U.S.? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>autonomousautonomous vehicledriver-lessdriverlessdriverless cargooglegoogle carvideoMon, 14 Nov 2011 13:31:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/20105813/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2011/11/14/google-to-build-driverless-cars-in-the-u-s/20105813/article-detail.xml 20105813 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/11/google-car-opt_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/11/google-car-opt.jpg <![CDATA[Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving Toyota Prius]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/14/video-abc-news-gets-taken-for-a-spin-in-googles-self-driving-t/http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/14/video-abc-news-gets-taken-for-a-spin-in-googles-self-driving-t/http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/14/video-abc-news-gets-taken-for-a-spin-in-googles-self-driving-t/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Testing Google's driverless car
ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google's driverless cars - Click above to watch video after the jump

Google's autonomous fleet has been clandestinely racking up the computer-driven miles, and so far, their autonomous autos have been fault-free. One minor incident happened when a car was rear-ended, but the Skynet Google cars have yet to incur any points on their virtual licenses. Earlier this week, ABC News got the chance to go for a spin in one of the tech company's automated cars, riding shotgun in a computer-controlled Toyota Prius.

The engineers from Google explain that the Prius utilizes a series of cameras and a roof-mounted, spinning laser to see what is going on around it. The result is a vehicle which might just be safer than one with a human behind the wheel. However, according to the report, the goal of the system is not to completely remove the driver from the equation, the system is pitched as more of a "super cruise-control" than a full auto-drive system. The theory is that it would be useful for traffic-filled commutes to and from work, and it might be a nice solution to eliminate or reduce distracted-driving. Get a phone call? Hit the Google button and let the car have the wheel while you take your call.

Becky Worley, the news correspondent in the video clip, even gets up the guts to give the Google car a real-life brake test. She steps in front of it as it's motoring down the road. What happens? The car "sees" her and slams on the binders. Check it all out in the video after the jump.

[Source: ABC News]

Continue reading Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving Toyota Prius

Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google's self-driving Toyota Prius originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>abc newsautonomousautonomous carautonomous vehicleautonomous vehiclesbecky worleydriverlessDriverless Carsgooglegoogle autonomous vehiclesgoogle cargoogle carsgoogle driverless carspriusself-drivingtoyota priusThu, 14 Oct 2010 12:28:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/19671261/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2010/10/14/video-abc-news-gets-taken-for-a-spin-in-googles-self-driving-t/19671261/article-detail.xml 19671261 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/10/google-car_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/10/google-car.jpg -1 2