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Please. You act as though Google is doing something revolutionary. It isn't. Everyone from universities to BMW and Mercedes are working on self driving cars, G

Please. You act as though Google is doing something revolutionary. It isn't. Everyone from universities to BMW and Mercedes are working on self driving cars, Google Glasses aren't AR and better attempts have been made previously and as for cheap fibre well countless countries have in reality what Google is just talking about. In many respects Google is like Apple - taking existing ideas and making them more polished.

drgath 14y ago
"Revolutionary" is such a subjective term. Very, very few ideas are actually novel. In fact, dreaming them up is usually easier than pulling them off, so give Apple & Google some credit. While they aren't inventing the future from scratch, they certainly deserve credit for bringing the future into the present. Multi-touch interfaces and tablets have been around for years and the ideas for them even longer (see: Star Trek), but no one has been able to figure out how to successfully pull it off and popularize it. Apple did. Automated cars have been the future since the Jetsons, and we're going to see it become a reality in the next decade, thanks to Google. We've been talking about "digital libraries" and having the world's knowledge at your fingertips for the last 100 years. Wikipedia figured that one out. The future is (mostly) already laid out, the roads just need to be paved to get everyone there. That is what Apple & Google are doing, along with some others. Edit: Just realized we actually used to have (dumb) automated cars. They were called horses.
ANH 14y ago
Perhaps what the parent was getting at is that other companies seem more risk averse. Google isn't afraid to fail in public. I can't remember the last truly exciting thing I heard about from BMW or Mercedes that was being tested in the real marketplace. Rear facing cameras in the bumper? A car that parallel parks itself? A 650 BHP V12? I throw your "please" back at you.
- jarek 14y ago
  A recent luxury vehicle has so many "assist" systems it could drive itself if only the manufacturer wanted to deal with the liability. Calculating the route? Trivial. Traction while braking, cornering, accelerating? Done. Staying in lane? Sure. Staying a safe distance behind car in front? Yup. Braking when pedestrians enter unsafe zone around car? Covered too. And yep, it'll parallel park at your destination. Google's real test will be putting their wundermachines on the market and standing behind them when the liability suits inevitably come in. That's not to say the vehicles themselves will malfunction, but that won't stop some people. Edit: here are some dates. - Staying in lane, 2003, Honda Inspire provides up to 80% of required steering torque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system#Timeline_of_available_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system#T.... Want to bet why it wasn't 100%? - Traction assist in cornering, 1995-1997 (notably retrofitted onto the Mercedes A-class in 1997 after it was beaten by a Trabant in the elk test): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control#Introduction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control#In.... Early forms of braking traction assist available as ABS starting in 1971. - Following the car in front, at any speed from 0 to 100 km/h, 2006, Lexus LS 460, with first systems becoming available 1997-2000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_cruise_control#Available_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_cruise_control#Availab... - Standard roadside traffic sign recognition, currently implemented for speed limit and overtaking restriction signs, 2008, BMW and GM, soon followed by others http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_sign_recognition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_sign_recognition - Blind spot detection, circa 2006, second generation Volvo S80: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_detection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_detection - Pedestrian detection, circa 2010, Volvo: http://www.popsci.com/bown/2010/product/volvo-pedestrian-detection http://www.popsci.com/bown/2010/product/volvo-pedestrian-det...
  - corin_ 14y ago
    Surely the revolutionary act is making something happen, not in having the ability to make it happen but not doing it. There's nothing Che Guevara did that I physically can't do, but I'm not a revolutionary because of what I've chosen to do.
    - jarek 14y ago
      Yeah, absolutely, huge credit to Google if they do put a self-driving car on the customer market. I was just responding to parent's question about the last truly exciting thing that was being tested in the real marketplace, which I felt trivialized existing technology and somewhat implied only Google is working on new automobile technology these days.

drgath 14y ago

"Revolutionary" is such a subjective term. Very, very few ideas are actually novel. In fact, dreaming them up is usually easier than pulling them off, so give Apple & Google some credit. While they aren't inventing the future from scratch, they certainly deserve credit for bringing the future into the present. Multi-touch interfaces and tablets have been around for years and the ideas for them even longer (see: Star Trek), but no one has been able to figure out how to successfully pull it off and popularize it. Apple did. Automated cars have been the future since the Jetsons, and we're going to see it become a reality in the next decade, thanks to Google. We've been talking about "digital libraries" and having the world's knowledge at your fingertips for the last 100 years. Wikipedia figured that one out. The future is (mostly) already laid out, the roads just need to be paved to get everyone there. That is what Apple & Google are doing, along with some others. Edit: Just realized we actually used to have (dumb) automated cars. They were called horses.

ANH 14y ago

Perhaps what the parent was getting at is that other companies seem more risk averse. Google isn't afraid to fail in public. I can't remember the last truly exciting thing I heard about from BMW or Mercedes that was being tested in the real marketplace. Rear facing cameras in the bumper? A car that parallel parks itself? A 650 BHP V12? I throw your "please" back at you.

jarek 14y ago
A recent luxury vehicle has so many "assist" systems it could drive itself if only the manufacturer wanted to deal with the liability. Calculating the route? Trivial. Traction while braking, cornering, accelerating? Done. Staying in lane? Sure. Staying a safe distance behind car in front? Yup. Braking when pedestrians enter unsafe zone around car? Covered too. And yep, it'll parallel park at your destination. Google's real test will be putting their wundermachines on the market and standing behind them when the liability suits inevitably come in. That's not to say the vehicles themselves will malfunction, but that won't stop some people. Edit: here are some dates. - Staying in lane, 2003, Honda Inspire provides up to 80% of required steering torque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system#Timeline_of_available_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system#T.... Want to bet why it wasn't 100%? - Traction assist in cornering, 1995-1997 (notably retrofitted onto the Mercedes A-class in 1997 after it was beaten by a Trabant in the elk test): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control#Introduction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control#In.... Early forms of braking traction assist available as ABS starting in 1971. - Following the car in front, at any speed from 0 to 100 km/h, 2006, Lexus LS 460, with first systems becoming available 1997-2000: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_cruise_control#Available_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_cruise_control#Availab... - Standard roadside traffic sign recognition, currently implemented for speed limit and overtaking restriction signs, 2008, BMW and GM, soon followed by others http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_sign_recognition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_sign_recognition - Blind spot detection, circa 2006, second generation Volvo S80: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_detection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_spot_detection - Pedestrian detection, circa 2010, Volvo: http://www.popsci.com/bown/2010/product/volvo-pedestrian-detection http://www.popsci.com/bown/2010/product/volvo-pedestrian-det...
- corin_ 14y ago
  Surely the revolutionary act is making something happen, not in having the ability to make it happen but not doing it. There's nothing Che Guevara did that I physically can't do, but I'm not a revolutionary because of what I've chosen to do.
  - jarek 14y ago
    Yeah, absolutely, huge credit to Google if they do put a self-driving car on the customer market. I was just responding to parent's question about the last truly exciting thing that was being tested in the real marketplace, which I felt trivialized existing technology and somewhat implied only Google is working on new automobile technology these days.