wilkes

Google driverless car

The Google Self-Driving Car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for autonomous cars, mainly electric cars. The software powering Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur.[2] Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car". The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its ****2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[3] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.[4]

Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C. allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, after Google had been lobbying in that state for robotic car laws.[5][6] The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012, to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.[7] In April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads,[8] and California became the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google HQ in Mountain View.[9] In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth state to allow testing of driverless cars in public roads.[10] In July 2014, the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.[11]

In May 2014, Google presented a new concept for their driverless car that had neither a steering wheel nor pedals,[12] and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year that they planned to test on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in 2015.[13] Google plans to make these cars available to the public in 2020.[14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...erless_car

Break thru in technology has had a major impact on everyone. Now everyone tries to blame everything on the Baby Boomer generation. I have friends that landed on Omaha Beach and also have friends thru the Baby Boomers and up to the Millinunal generation. Technology is the most improvement that have touched my life.

I'm not sure were you are getting some of your spec numbers but going back to my earlier post engines are built to use what is available at the time. The only change in tolerance I have encountered is directly related to the oils available. You mention the 50's. Back then oil sucked and now we have multi viscosity formulas that was unheard of back then. The machine process has changed little over the years.

Topsoil I was talking about up to 20 some years ago you are talking about 60 years ago. A big difference. I have build a few engines and the tolerances have not changed much. There has been advancements in air flow but most of the restrictions in performance come at the hands of the government. We are decades apart on this topic.

@Shagbag

If I had my old '67 Chevy back , as long as I could find parts for it, I'd never let it go.

Top Soil (view profile)	Posted 8:53 am, 05/24/2015
@goddess keep in mind, those harder to work on vehicles are build to last longer(While that's not always the case) Hitting 100,000 miles on your '83 civic was a major milestone back then, today's vehicles do it while still omitting that new car smell.

The increase in miles you can put on a vehicle without problems has more to do with advancements in oil than the quality of the vehicles motor transmission etc. Electronics are light years ahead of their older counterparts built a decade before but the mechanicals are relativity unchanged. You can take an 80's model remanufactured motor run it with todays oil and get the same amount of miles as a 2015 model counterpart. The huge horsepower and fuel mileage gains found on new vehicles is only possible because of electronics. The government mandates forced on the auto industry is the reason older cars suffered in these areas but the auto industry has developed the technology to work around these mandates to provide the performance car buyers demand. People point at Toyota when comparing quality to US manufactures but they don't talk about how weak most Toyotas were. To make Toyota motors last they were built on the conservative side with low compression etc. That is the same reason high performance sports cars do not last and give trouble when they get a few miles on the clock. Toyotas are good vehicles and I have owned them but they are not what some people make them out to be. If you ever work on one you tend to not like them as much. They can be a pain but the big three is no better especially any front wheel drive.

Guitar!!!

Goddess you could just blame that on bad gas, it's not the cars fault! ROFL!

Oh Tops, ya killing me...I keep that bottle of new car smell in the glove compartments....I have noticed however, that I am purchasing it a little more frequently these days

It's a big old rat race out there, car companies racing to find another idiot feature to brag about. I don't know how many years companies have been re - calling cars, but look how common place it has become. Looks like we're all in danger of our air-bags killing us.

@goddess

Sorry, Its a nerve of mine. People blaming everything bad on the Millennials. As if, out of nowhere a whole generation of selfish, lazy kids where fraught from innocent events.

Top, I didn't mean to offend you if I did in anyway, I was just merely repeating what I read. I am sorry if I didn't convey it well enough that someone would understand it wasn't necessarily my own personal opinion.

"A lot of repairs on older vehicles could be done by the owner. Now they engineer them so you've got to take them to the dealership to get them fixed."

Guitar (view profile)

Posted 5:26 am, 05/24/2015

Cars like a lot of things are becoming Idiot Boxes. These things might be great for some people but for some it will make them lazier than they already are! It makes them not think, therein lies the problem. People already rely too much on technology to do simple tasks they should be using their brains for. Some Kids today can't do simple tasks, they have no common sense at all. One reason why that is happening is because they depend so much on technology to figure things out. I read a study on MSN not long ago that Kids that held higher degrees today did not have the education that degree required. When test scores with kids from other countries who held the same level of Degrees American kids failed in every level. Best I recall the USA was like 49th in the world for Education. According to that Study 3rd world countries scored by far higher on those test scores than American kids. Those kids refer to themselves as Millennials according to the study, it went on to say kids had no work ethic, they wanted to start at the top and basically expected everything handed out to them just like the degrees they didn't earn. The study said these kids was the Worst Generation America had ever produced.

Wrote by someone from a generation that;

All that stuff is OK as long as it works. What's going to happen when it fails and you end up under the rear end of a tractor-trailer. When the car or truck is under warranty fixing stuff like that is OK if it tears up. It's costly if it's not. One of my wife's friends had one of those vans with the automatic sliding side doors. It messed up some way and it cost her close to 600 dollars to get it fixed. A lot of repairs on older vehicles could be done by the owner. Now they engineer them so you've got to take them to the dealership to get them fixed.

Cars like a lot of things are becoming Idiot Boxes. These things might be great for some people but for some it will make them lazier than they already are! It makes them not think, therein lies the problem.

I have an older friend that owns a truck that does that. He is the inspiration behind this post because I was riding with him and I noticed he depends on this feature. He was never a good driver but this has made him even more careless. Three years old is new to me

My car isn't new (three years old). I don't know if it slows down but when I get to close to the car in front of me all kinds of lights and bells go off. I have only had it happen when someone is turning left or right and I do get to close. As for it slowing down, I have my foot on the brake so I don't know if it would do it on its own. There isn't anything fancy about my car. It's just a everyday Ford.