Driverless car accidents kept secret.

surge

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...the-police-reports-are-not-being-made-public/

Eleven driverless vehicles have been involved in minor accidents on California roads over the past six years during testing, Google said Monday, stressing that none of its cars were at fault in any of the incidents.

The company made the admission after a reported from the Associated Press said two Google driverless cars, while controlled by computers, were involved in accidents since last fall when the state gave the company official permission to start testing the technology on public roads. Nobody was hurt in any of the crashes, Google said.

But in the wake of the accidents, the police reports were not made public in accordance with California law. Google did not release the reports either — a practice could hurt the very future of driverless cars that several technology companies are trying to build.

Proponents of self-driving cars argue that computer-driven vehicles can help improve automotive safety by reacting more quickly to oncoming dangers and keeping a better eye on the environment, reducing the risk of driver error. But the public lacks objective data about whether that’s true in practice or even potentially true.

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I understand that Google wants to put a positive light on these vehicles, but if they want people to have complete trust in the concept then they have to have complete transparency. Tell us when the vehicles are involved in accidents. Hiding the information only makes people skeptical, especially if, like me, you aren't a big believer in the first place.
 
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I see they are also trying this concept with semis. No, just no. I want people behind the wheel at all times. Split second decisions cannot be made by computers in a lot of situations. They can't even handle road work areas, much less major things that happen in a heartbeat. I'll only trust the humans.
 
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I see they are also trying this concept with semis. No, just no. I want people behind the wheel at all times. Split second decisions cannot be made by computers in a lot of situations. They can't even handle road work areas, much less major things that happen in a heartbeat. I'll only trust the humans.
What that article doesn't tell you is that many truckers have left the industry over the past several years due to new government regulations, and many potential new drivers have chosen to take different career paths for the same reason.
 
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What that article doesn't tell you is that many truckers have left the industry over the past several years due to new government regulations, and many potential new drivers have chosen to take different career paths for the same reason.
That's so sad because I really do admire the drivers out there. Sooo many times in the past I've had truckers help when I've had breakdowns or gotten lost (prior to the GPS age!) I still see them as the White Knights of the road, willing to help other drivers all the time. I'd trust a trucker who stopped to help me over someone in a regular vehicle any day. And I'd much rather have them behind the wheel of one of those rigs than it being steered by some computer!!!
 
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http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_28118171/google-deploys-new-robot-cars-city-streets-dmv

MOUNTAIN VIEW -- After a year of testing its bubble-shaped driverless cars on the empty roads of a shuttered Central Valley military base, Google is about to deploy its fleet on the busy streets of Silicon Valley.





For now, the cars must have safety drivers ready to grab the wheel or hit the brakes if something goes wrong. But self-driving software could soon move from test cars to consumer vehicles as the California Department of Motor Vehicles puts finishing touches this month on new operational rules for autonomous cars, making it the first government in the world to create a detailed handbook for robots on the road.



The two-seater prototype of Google's self-driving car is ready for demonstration at Google in Mountain View, Calif., on Wednesday, May 13, 2015. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group) ( LiPo Ching )




"Our goal is to create something safer than human drivers," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin, speaking this week as his company's two-seater prototype zoomed around a rooftop parking lot in Mountain View. "And keep improving from there."
 
I don't even understand why this is a need. Brin says the goal is "to create something safer than human drivers". That's easy and a LOT cheaper with one change - make the darn cell phones illegal to use while driving. That would cost nothing, and be an immediate solution to a HUGE problem with safe driving. This is just another example of how lazy and self-absorbed people are now days if they can't even drive themselves somewhere. I actually like to drive. Are they going to take away that right some day by claiming it's safer to have my car drive itself? Technology is not always a good thing, and I think this is one example.
 
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