Photo: gq-magazine.co.uk
Do you know why you get a huge disclaimer with any vehicle that comes fitted with cruise control and/or lane keeping assist? Because in the technology’s early days of introduction, a not very bright guy activated the system on the highway and seeing the car able to go on its own, decided to take a nap in the back seat.
As you can imagine, the car veered off the road scaring the living soul of the guy. The ‘legend’ says he got out alive and sued the automaker for not specifically telling people in the instructions manual not to sleep while activating the cruise control.
And he went victorious in the lawsuit, managing to milk a large amount of money from the car manufacturer and also give birth to another "Captain Obvious" warning message you get all over the place now.
However, in the meantime, automakers are striving to put out the first autonomous driving vehicles which are said to increase traffic safety and spare drivers from the hugely effort of pressing two pedals, turning a circle and not crashing into something.
California looks to be the place of choice for the first commercialized autonomous cars, but this doesn’t mean you’ll just set the destination and go take a nap in the back yet.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles came up with a set of rules for those wanting to be the first owners of such technology.
We don’t really know what sane person would activate an experimental system and then leave it do it’s job without any supervision, but Californian new laws say that you must be in the driver seat all the time and be ready to override the system at any time if something wrong occurs.
Moreover, if you want to be one of the chosen ones, you’ll have to prove your worthiness and follow specific training programs after which you and your autonomous vehicle will be put under observation to analyze whether or not the whole self-driving-car idea can be further implemented.
The amount of rules given (which you can see in the press release bellow) kinda makes you don’t want to complicate your life with autonomous vehicles so soon. Maybe we should let physics students test them first.
And he went victorious in the lawsuit, managing to milk a large amount of money from the car manufacturer and also give birth to another "Captain Obvious" warning message you get all over the place now.
However, in the meantime, automakers are striving to put out the first autonomous driving vehicles which are said to increase traffic safety and spare drivers from the hugely effort of pressing two pedals, turning a circle and not crashing into something.
California looks to be the place of choice for the first commercialized autonomous cars, but this doesn’t mean you’ll just set the destination and go take a nap in the back yet.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles came up with a set of rules for those wanting to be the first owners of such technology.
We don’t really know what sane person would activate an experimental system and then leave it do it’s job without any supervision, but Californian new laws say that you must be in the driver seat all the time and be ready to override the system at any time if something wrong occurs.
Moreover, if you want to be one of the chosen ones, you’ll have to prove your worthiness and follow specific training programs after which you and your autonomous vehicle will be put under observation to analyze whether or not the whole self-driving-car idea can be further implemented.
The amount of rules given (which you can see in the press release bellow) kinda makes you don’t want to complicate your life with autonomous vehicles so soon. Maybe we should let physics students test them first.
Google News