The Coming of the Car-Bot

[steinravnik]

The Coming of the Car-Bot

GM's Cadillac models and Buick Lucerne now offer it as an option, as do Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, and Lexus.

Imagine the scene: You're driving your car to an office building in New York City, five minutes from a job interview. No worries. You have already dialed into the car's memory the parking garage where it's going to stay, and prepaid the bill. You shut the door. And off it goes. Driverless. And the chances of the car getting into an accident while it travels five or six treacherous city blocks are less than if the hopeful job applicant had tried to park it himself under time pressure.

Does it sound too good to be true? A sign of the end of civilization as we know it? Too far into the future to care? It depends on whom you ask. But some researchers, engineers, and auto companies believe that such automation is not only on the way to becoming commonplace in the next 20 years, but essential to reducing the carbon footprint of vehicles from the U.S. to China and everywhere else. Oh, and as the technology necessary to achieve the "autonomous" car arrives in stages every few years—some of it is already here, in options such as electronic stability control and blind-spot detection—it promises to sharply reduce traffic fatalities.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home...of-the-Car-Bot

[MCGARRETT]

Interesting article, though as far as I know the Adaptive Cruise is a Cadillac only option so far.

Though I hope that Buick will offer it in the future.

[eurohazard]

Originally Posted by MCGARRETT

Interesting article, though as far as I know the Adaptive Cruise is a Cadillac only option so far.

You mean for GM vehicles right? Other manufacturers have it too.

[MCGARRETT]

Yeah of course

[CrunkedRL]

So much valets once this technology hits the mainstream. And having seen the way many valets here in Columbus drive the cars they park I would much rather trust a computer to park my car rather than them. But then theres the issue of liability.

[tkrelston]

Lucern has it as an option if I recall correctly

[johnny smallblock]

So can I just break the window of a car that's driving itself to a parking spot and take off in it? Also, it would be nice to claim the driverless car hit me and now I need to sue the driver who wasn't there to see what happened.

Ah, the future.