DailyDirt: Smarter Cars On The Way (Not Smarter Drivers)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Cars used to be fairly simple mechanical devices that gave drivers the freedom to zip around a city, but now cars are much more technologically advanced gadgets -- getting smarter and connecting with all kinds of other things (eg. sensors, phones, other cars, the internet). Pretty soon, cars could become our artificially-intelligent personal servants, helping us out with our daily tasks like KITT but without the turbo boost. Here are just a few steps towards every driver getting their own car sidekick. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: automaker, autonomous vehicle, cars, carsharing, keyless entry, mobile apps, prototype, self-driving car
Companies: apple, google, intel


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2013 @ 5:18pm

    Sign me up to be a google beta tester for a self-driving car! (as long as the car is made by Toyota)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      TechnoMage (profile), 16 Oct 2013 @ 8:03pm

      Re:

      as long as the car is made by Telsa I think you meant... ;)

      But, honestly, I'd take a self driving car with GOOG software, from pretty much any manf.

      Especially when they start to realize that people such as myself just want a car from point A to point B , and not about all the other bells and whistles, if the car has AC/heat and a set of speakers with an audio jack input, then I don't care if it is bright pink and shaped like tear drop.

      I don't care about a sun roof, power windows, power seats, XM radio, or anything else like that...

      ....Though I would like a refit to be able to lay completely flat and sleep while it drives me to go see family 9 hours away, that way I can just go to sleep (maybe having to wake up to get gas) and then wake up at 'home' , etc.

      but normally, I just want to be able to get myself and one other person and some 'stuff'(groceries, or w/e) to where I want to go, which is most of the time, me from work and back.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2013 @ 7:13am

        Re: Re:

        if the car has AC/heat and a set of speakers with an audio jack input, then I don't care if it is bright pink and shaped like tear drop

        What about a hotdog? That would be a little too much for most people, I would think!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          John Fenderson (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 10:49am

          Re: Re: Re:

          I'd pay extra to have a car shaped like a hot dog, but certainly not for a sun roof, power windows, power seats, XM radio, etc.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2013 @ 11:15pm

    Google is not a technology company

    They are an advertising company, the do not develop their own software, they customize and modify open source software to assist them in focused advertising.

    Apple is a "COTS" company, basically a packager of existing technologies.

    Intel is a chip making company, IC's are the building blocks of technology, not the technology itself.

    to develop a self driving car, you will need more than software, or Intel chips, you'll need GPS technology, systems engineering skills and technology, experience in fail safe feed back and feed forward control systems, and a vast array of other technologies and skills.

    Most of which Google has next to ZERO experience with, and none of which they employ in their own business model (advertising).

    Someone like NASA or Defence department have far more experience in self controlled vehicles, navigation and safety systems, that the likes of Google would have to develop and learn from scratch.

    I would not trust Google as far as I could throw it !!!

    Because I KNOW Google would track every trip I took and use that information for directed advertising, they would hold onto that data for years and years with no oversight.

    Google is like the NSA on steroids.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 17 Oct 2013 @ 10:59am

      Re: Google is not a technology company

      They are an advertising company, the do not develop their own software, they customize and modify open source software to assist them in focused advertising.


      Google is an advertising company, but they also do software development. And they do, in fact, develop their own software in addition to modifying open source software -- just like nearly every software company in existence.

      Apple is a "COTS" company, basically a packager of existing technologies.


      Just like nearly all tech companies.

      Intel is a chip making company, IC's are the building blocks of technology, not the technology itself.


      Wait a minute... so, Google and Apple are not "technology" companies because the use other technologies as building blocks for their products, but Intel (who makes building blocks for other companies to use) is also not a technology company?

      I'm really curious to know... what, exactly, is a technology company, then? The folks who make the silicon ingots?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2013 @ 5:42am

    What a good idea ... open up the vehicle internal operations to outside control via an easily hacked protocol.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Brother John, 17 Oct 2013 @ 6:26am

    Not good

    It's cool for us kids of the '80s (and even those older than us) to adopt new technology and pretend we're driving KITT, sure, but newer technology in cars make people worse drivers, this in a land where driving law is based on the theory that sanity is achieved only when traffic is snarled to a standstill and good driving skills are not taught and rarely enforced.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    I Forgot, 17 Oct 2013 @ 7:10am

    driverless cars

    The next time I need a g00Gle Driverless (autonomous) car to get me to the store, PLEASE SHOOT ME.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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