Robo-drivers show clean slate so far
Google has released data reportedly showing its driverless cars are safer than those with human operators.
We may all be relegated to the back seat in a few years, if the claims by Google are true.
They say over the several years their cars have been criss-crossing US roads they are yet to cause a single accident. In addition, their acceleration and braking is more responsive and smoother than that of a human, and the autonomous vehicles are better at keeping a safe distance from the car ahead.
The engineer behind Google’s autonomous car project spoke last week at a robotics conference in California, and revealed data from the 482,700 kilometres their cars have covered.
Google’s director of self-driving cars Chris Urmson says; “our car is driving more smoothly and more safely than our trained professional drivers.”
The self-driving car has been tested with a person behind the wheel in case of an emergency, and has been involved in two crashes. In both incidents the Google car was rear-ended after it had stopped; data showed it was the fault of the other driver.
The liability of artificial intelligence on the road is of course a hurdle, but reports say California, Nevada, and Florida have already adjusted their laws to allow tests of self-driving cars.