Google's Self-Driving Car Test

I heard somewhere that there was a company creating cars that can drive on a highway autonomously, steering (kinda), braking and accelerating when necessary. Although, they couldn't make them steer around corners, only being able to go straight.
 
SovareZza said:
I heard somewhere that there was a company creating cars that can drive on a highway autonomously, steering (kinda), braking and accelerating when necessary. Although, they couldn't make them steer around corners, only being able to go straight.
Click to expand...
It's called cruise-control.
There also is a car, a Mercedes I believe, that can park itself.
A fully operational car that can drive itself is no small feat though, caps off to Google.
 
Stybar said:
SovareZza said:
I heard somewhere that there was a company creating cars that can drive on a highway autonomously, steering (kinda), braking and accelerating when necessary. Although, they couldn't make them steer around corners, only being able to go straight.
Click to expand...
It's called cruise-control.
There also is a car, a Mercedes I believe, that can park itself.
A fully operational car that can drive itself is no small feat though, caps off to Google.
Click to expand...
People have been doing this long before google did it.
 
SovareZza said:
I heard somewhere that there was a company creating cars that can drive on a highway autonomously, steering (kinda), braking and accelerating when necessary. Although, they couldn't make them steer around corners, only being able to go straight.
Click to expand...
That's adaptive cruise control, I have tried it out on the road in a 2008 VW Phaeton. In conclusion it is better not to get used to it and one should always keep their eyes on the road and at least one hand on the wheel. Specially when it comes to curves.
My current, 2005 VW Passat is equipped with a regular cruise control technique. Both are equipped with a sound alert parking assist, but it is just simple beeping and doesn't help you a lot unless you want to park real close to a wall or something. Parallel parking has been easy for me since the time when I practiced for my license anyways...

I've also driven a BMW 530i which is equipped with a fully automatic parking system (wouldn't call it assistance anymore) through the iDrive interface. I had the vehicle for 1.5 weeks and the whole system amazed me. Not only it would take me a few years at least before being able to get such a car myself, but I had not driven anything so nice before in my life. The iDrive program is very confusing at first, but once you get used to (after a few minutes of fiddling around), it becomes very convenient. And the first time I actually aborted the parking by grabbing the wheel and hitting the brake because I was afraid I was going to hit the Passat that was parking behind me. On a second attempt, it did not however and was quite smooth at it.

So all the wonders of modern vehicles have become to this... a Google vehicle that does not like turning signals and parks itself like a true American. I seriously hope taking a handicap parking space is not a standard feature of the system.

Besides, aren't there too many challenges to face? Specifically since they use a lot of unstandardized road signs in the United States?
 
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