Google is a frickin’ amazing company. It seems they’re working on a little bit of everything. Today the project of note is work on self-driving cars capable of functioning in traffic. Currently they still need a human inside for safety reasons, but this is just plain cool.
What we’re driving at – via the Official Google Blog
Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic – via NYTimes.com
The one legitimate caveat that I see with this technology is the same as with so many others. What happens when people develop a dependence on this tech and it fails? The closest current example I can think of is something that I am guilty of, myself – reliance on in-car GPS navigation. How screwed would you be if you were in an unfamiliar location, your GPS unit stopped working and you didn’t know how to read a map? That assumes, of course, that you even have a map.
When people get used to technology they take it for granted. Don’t believe me? Try to leave your cell phone off and not use the internet for a week. Unplug your land line (if you even still have one) and forget about the TV and the radio, too. One of two things will happen. Either you’ll realize you don’t need these things or you’ll go batty from the isolation and inconvenience inside of a day or two.
For those unaware – In the Terminator movie franchise, Cyberdyne is the company that created the artificial intelligence that eventually triggered a nuclear war. Everybody knows that if it’s not zombies, it will be sentient robots that take over the world. Make sure your kill switch is hardwired, Google.
