Tag Archives: Culture

Problem is not the Google Self-Driving Cars but the Gawkers

 

Response to: Google’s Self-Driving Robot Cars Are Ruining My Commute

I found it an amusing and interesting article because the title appeared logical as to the root cause of concern expressed by Ashlee Vance. However, I found myself mildly amused at the true cause for concern regarding the robot fleet of automatic self-driving vehicles. What’s happening is that it’s the others. It’s the regular drivers who want to know “how that thing works.” This is what’s causing the problems as noted by Ashlee here:

The situation gets worse when people pass a Google car and take their eyes off the road while they try to analyze what exactly is next to them. The humans swerve. They drift. They’ve turned the area around my house into a game of Frogger.

But as the author notes it is a small price to pay and one that as a society will be faced to confront as more cars and newer technology finds it way to the masses. This is a problem that Google is well familar with as they have forged ahead and created some rather unique technology. Recently with the introduction of Google Glass and not so recent Google Street View Car.