{"id":709,"date":"2015-02-09T17:24:37","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T01:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=709"},"modified":"2015-02-09T17:24:37","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T01:24:37","slug":"google-self-driving-car-takes-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/google-self-driving-car-takes-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Google self-driving car takes control"},"content":{"rendered":"
By TREVOR JACKSON\r\n Guest Column<\/pre>\n
The other day I was riding\u00a0in the car with my father; we\u00a0were talking about this and\u00a0that, very casual like, and I\u00a0bring up the subject of Google\u2019s\u00a0self-driving car. I say,\u00a0\u201cYou think you would ever\u00a0buy a self-driving car?\u201d
\nHis response? \u201cHell, no!\u201d\u00a0I was surprised. We debated\u00a0and bantered over the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like having control,\u201d he\u00a0said, gripping the steering\u00a0wheel of our Subaru a little\u00a0tighter. He held on even tighter when I mentioned\u00a0that Google\u2019s most recent prototype,\u00a0in fact, had no steering\u00a0wheel. Or even pedals.\u00a0And starts testing on public\u00a0roads this month.\u00a0Admittedly, even I find this\u00a0a little freaky. However, I am\u00a0still on board with autonomous\u00a0driving, and for two big\u00a0reasons.<\/p>\n
The first is that computers are so much cooler, calm and collected than humans are. Human beings are fragile; our driving can be inhibited by so many different factors: alcohol, lack of sleep, medication, road rage, etc. We have lives; we have worries; we have distractions; we have so many things that can put us in danger when we get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
But, the Google Car is a machine whose existence is entirely dedicated to and limited to getting you from A to B. The Google Car does not get drowsy; it does not get inebriated; it does not get loopy from medication; it does not get blinded by road rage.<\/p>\n
It has over $100,000 worth of technology within it, all dedicated to driving. It has a LIDAR 64 beam Velodyne laser system mounted on its roof constantly reading and interpreting its surroundings, generating a 3D map of its environment for itself in real time. Tell me, do you have a LIDAR 64 Velodyne laser system when you drive? Huh? Do ya, Dad?!<\/p>\n
The second big reason I\u2019m for it is the convenience aspect. It may seem obvious,
\neveryone can imagine what they\u2019d do with their free time: read a book, play a game, do homework, watch the game, take a nap, it\u2019s endless.<\/p>\n
But let me paint a bigger picture for you: It\u2019s the middle of February, and you\u2019re going to the movies with your significant other. You both get into your regular four-door sedan that you have to operate yourself, and you\u2019re on your way.<\/p>\n
For the 20-minute drive, you\u2019re focused on the road, jittery from your Dutch Bros., and your significant other is focused on their phone for the whole ride, because they don\u2019t want to distract you. For the whole ride, you don\u2019t talk
\nmuch.<\/p>\n
You get to the movie theater and the lot is full, and you have to drive down the
\nstreet and park on the curb. And damn it all, you suck at parallel parking. It takes a few tries to get it right; you step out to inspect your handiwork
\nonly to find that you still are a good two feet from the curb, so you get in try it once more to correct it.<\/p>\n
You finally walk to the theater, rush to get your seats (the trailers are already playing by this point), and sit down for your date. When the movie is done, its dark out and around 26 degrees outside. You walk down the dark and sketchy street to your car, and sit for another 10 minutes while you wait for the windshield to defrost.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s awfully cold. On the way back, you combat drowsiness, trying to focus on the yellow line, with the oncoming traffic headlights blaring in your eyes. You finally get home, and the both of you fall into bed, exhausted and defeated.<\/p>\n
Now, let me paint another picture: It\u2019s the middle of February, and you\u2019re going to the movie with your significant other. You both get into your Google Self-Driving Car, and you\u2019re on your way. For the 20 minute drive, you hold hands and fall asleep in each other\u2019s arms for a little nap.<\/p>\n
You arrive at the theater, get up, stretch, and the Google Car drops you off at the front door. You press a button, and the Google Car goes off to find itself somewhere to park.<\/p>\n
You and your significant other stop to get a popcorn and Red Vines (you have
\nplenty of time), and sit down just in time for the trailers to start playing. At the end of the movie as the credits are rolling, you press the \u201cReturn\u201d button on your key, and by the time you step out of the theater the Google Car is waiting for you at the front door, heated, ready to protect you from the cold and take
\nyou both home to bed.<\/p>\n
I will let someone, or something, do the driving for me any day. But if you, like my father, prefer having control, go ahead and grip your steering wheel tighter. I, on the other hand, am going to enjoy my nap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By TREVOR JACKSON Guest Column The other day I was riding\u00a0in the car with my father; we\u00a0were talking about this and\u00a0that, very casual like, and I\u00a0bring up the subject of Google\u2019s\u00a0self-driving car. I say,\u00a0\u201cYou think you would ever\u00a0buy a self-driving car?\u201d His response? \u201cHell, no!\u201d\u00a0I was surprised. We debated\u00a0and bantered over the subject. \u201cI like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}