DailyDirt: Smarter Cars On The Way (Not Smarter Drivers)
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Cars used to be fairly simple mechanical devices that gave drivers the freedom to zip around a city, but now cars are much more technologically advanced gadgets — getting smarter and connecting with all kinds of other things (eg. sensors, phones, other cars, the internet). Pretty soon, cars could become our artificially-intelligent personal servants, helping us out with our daily tasks like KITT but without the turbo boost. Here are just a few steps towards every driver getting their own car sidekick.
- Unlocking your car with your phone via a ‘passive Bluetooth keyless entry system’ sounds pretty cool — just wait for your phone and your car to pair up wirelessly, and voila, you can hop into your car. (And if your phone is out of range, all the doors lock automatically, too.) Right now, this prototype only works with an Android phone and some custom Arduino hardware in the car (and there are probably a few security concerns for this hack, but who cares when your car opens for you automagically). [url]
- The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) says that mobile apps are making it easier for young adults (16-34yo) to drive less — by making carsharing and public transportation more convenient than ever before. Kids these days just want to get from point A to point B without disconnecting from Facebook… Just make sure to look up from your phone every so often as a safety check, folks. [url]
- A survey of car owners suggests that consumers might be more willing to use a self-driving car from a technology company like Google, Apple or Intel — rather than one from a traditional automaker. The survey question presumes self-driving cars are safe — so consumers probably aren’t quite ready yet to place their lives in the hands of a version 1.0 beta autonomous car. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: automaker, autonomous vehicle, cars, carsharing, keyless entry, mobile apps, prototype, self-driving car
Companies: apple, google, intel
Comments on “DailyDirt: Smarter Cars On The Way (Not Smarter Drivers)”
Sign me up to be a google beta tester for a self-driving car! (as long as the car is made by Toyota)
Re: Re:
as long as the car is made by Telsa I think you meant… 😉
But, honestly, I’d take a self driving car with GOOG software, from pretty much any manf.
Especially when they start to realize that people such as myself just want a car from point A to point B , and not about all the other bells and whistles, if the car has AC/heat and a set of speakers with an audio jack input, then I don’t care if it is bright pink and shaped like tear drop.
I don’t care about a sun roof, power windows, power seats, XM radio, or anything else like that…
….Though I would like a refit to be able to lay completely flat and sleep while it drives me to go see family 9 hours away, that way I can just go to sleep (maybe having to wake up to get gas) and then wake up at ‘home’ , etc.
but normally, I just want to be able to get myself and one other person and some ‘stuff'(groceries, or w/e) to where I want to go, which is most of the time, me from work and back.
Re: Re: Re:
if the car has AC/heat and a set of speakers with an audio jack input, then I don’t care if it is bright pink and shaped like tear drop
What about a hotdog? That would be a little too much for most people, I would think!
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I’d pay extra to have a car shaped like a hot dog, but certainly not for a sun roof, power windows, power seats, XM radio, etc.
Google is not a technology company
They are an advertising company, the do not develop their own software, they customize and modify open source software to assist them in focused advertising.
Apple is a “COTS” company, basically a packager of existing technologies.
Intel is a chip making company, IC’s are the building blocks of technology, not the technology itself.
to develop a self driving car, you will need more than software, or Intel chips, you’ll need GPS technology, systems engineering skills and technology, experience in fail safe feed back and feed forward control systems, and a vast array of other technologies and skills.
Most of which Google has next to ZERO experience with, and none of which they employ in their own business model (advertising).
Someone like NASA or Defence department have far more experience in self controlled vehicles, navigation and safety systems, that the likes of Google would have to develop and learn from scratch.
I would not trust Google as far as I could throw it !!!
Because I KNOW Google would track every trip I took and use that information for directed advertising, they would hold onto that data for years and years with no oversight.
Google is like the NSA on steroids.
Re: Google is not a technology company
Google is an advertising company, but they also do software development. And they do, in fact, develop their own software in addition to modifying open source software — just like nearly every software company in existence.
Just like nearly all tech companies.
Wait a minute… so, Google and Apple are not “technology” companies because the use other technologies as building blocks for their products, but Intel (who makes building blocks for other companies to use) is also not a technology company?
I’m really curious to know… what, exactly, is a technology company, then? The folks who make the silicon ingots?
What a good idea … open up the vehicle internal operations to outside control via an easily hacked protocol.
Not good
It’s cool for us kids of the ’80s (and even those older than us) to adopt new technology and pretend we’re driving KITT, sure, but newer technology in cars make people worse drivers, this in a land where driving law is based on the theory that sanity is achieved only when traffic is snarled to a standstill and good driving skills are not taught and rarely enforced.
driverless cars
The next time I need a g00Gle Driverless (autonomous) car to get me to the store, PLEASE SHOOT ME.