Google driving hard into the future with artificial intelligence cars

James Raia

Google driving hard into the future with artificial intelligence cars 1Google is the undisputed internet monolith. But who knew its engineers were working on artificial intelligence that might make the search engine pioneer equally important in the automotive industry?John Markoff, author of the top story in the New York Times’ science section Oct. 9, offers a detailed account of the research in an article titled Google Cars Drive Themselves in Traffic.

Google driving hard into the future with artificial intelligence cars 2

Early in the article, sub-titled “Smarter Than You Think,” Markoff writes:

“The car is a project of Google, which has been working in secret but in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver.”

“With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes awry and a technician in the passenger seat to monitor the navigation system, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control.”

“One even drove itself down Lombard Street in San Francisco, one of the steepest and curviest streets in the nation. The only accident, engineers said, was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.”

The article and description of autonomous cars (vehicles that drive themselves) prompted memories of the 2001 movie A1 (Artificial Intelligence), the compelling, futuristic film staring Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law.

The film includes cars driven by robots as well as autonomous cars.

To read the complete New York Times article, visit: Cars Drive Themselves

To read read more about A1 the movie, visit: A.I. The Movie

Article Last Updated: October 10, 2010.

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