Are We Ready for a Self-Driving Car?

Google recently stunned many when they announced their most ambitious project to date: a self-driving car. The public was left to debate the necessity (and safety) of a car that drives itself. We also had to ask ourselves, do we trust this technology on our roads? While the Google team perfects their car, we can familiarize ourselves by understanding how it works, and what it means for transportation in the future.

Google’s Self Driving Car Project Team began working on the vehicles in 2009, at the infamous Google headquarters in Silicon Valley. Google executives say we can’t expect to see the cars on the road until 2017-2020. The cars utilize a google made topography map and software to navigate. The map is accompanied by remote sensing technology and camera systems. Dmitri Dolgov, the head of software, describes it in simple terms as “taking a map and comparing it to your position.”

If you’re uneasy with a vehicle driven by software, consider that car accidents are the leading cause of death for people under 45 years of age. The Self Driving Car Project team hopes to make driving safer by ridding human error behind the wheel with software. Only time will tell if their project is a success. If it is, expect the landscape of driving to be forever changed. Imagine a world with self-driving cars: being able to read or work during your daily commute instead of driving. No one would ever have to drive under the influence. Software could prevent an accident that a human could not. Many motor vehicle deaths could be prevented, and the world would be a safer place.