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Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

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Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#41

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my c…

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Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#42
Google has had much more PR about it's revolutionary tech and that has a LOT going for it. When tesla comes out with their self driving car, if it looks 100x better than this prototype, I still might pick Google. Better aesthetics with comparable functionality will win the majority of time in my book (think Android devices vs Apple devices), however when it comes times to putting my life on the line, I will go with something I feel is safer 100% of the time regardless of how it looks. And like always, Google will dominate with it's superior functionality (backed by their PR over the last couple of years) over any tesla any day.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#44

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my c…

The vision should be to replace as many drivered cars as possible with driverless and network the vehicles. I see a future without a need for stop lights.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#45

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my c…

I want a self-driving car to free me up to do other things on my hour commute twice a day. Even if it were more cost-effective to rent (which I suspect it would not be given how much I would need to rent), I can think of 2 reasons I'd rather own:

- Don't have to worry about availability. Turns out there are a lot of people in my region who go to work in the morning and go home in the evening.

- When you spend that much time in your vehicle, it becomes and extension of your personal/living space. I don't want to spend 10 hours a week in a public box that may have a mess or an odor from the person before me.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#46

A lot of people are bashing the car's appearance, but I think people forget that putting the first driverless cars on the road is as much a PR challenge as it is a technological challenge. Truly autonomous driverless cars is a huge shift in the way we have operated for almost 100 years. There will be a lot of caution and resistance from political groups, concerned citizens, entrenched interests, etc. The car that the…

The appearance of the car is really important. If it looked too fun, like a Ferrari, some may think it's not safe. It reminds me of "helper" robots in movies about the future. They always have such unintimidating appearances. This car appears to be attempting the same thing and I'm ok with it.

sure appearance can convince a person of a well designed product. But I prefer, a well designed product, especially when my life is on the line over appearence. Tesla may come out with a super shiny beautiful self-driving car, but I will probably go with a dorky Google car if it has X miles (where X is a large impressive number) under its belt.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#47

Edit: Google staff and fanbois have far too much time to downvote, but less time to articulate why it seems! I tried to use Google's driverless car, but everytime I asked it to search for rival services, it kept driving me to their search and adsales offices. Was a bit weird. Like they told the car to prefer their services first! My eurotrash friends promised to investigate though, so that's nice.

Part of the aggressive downvoting comes from people who have actually lost loved ones or lost money and time in road accidents and really really want this technology to get somewhere. If I had downvote powers I would have downvoted you too.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#48
post #5

This thing looks like a clown car. Perfect for those who think Glass is the height of fashion.

Indeed. Looks "cute", but cute doesn't sell with cars..

Edit: after seeing the discussion on 25mph and the disarming cuteness, then it makes much more sense.

I too don't care about what the car looks like, but then again I don't own one, partly because I don't care about them as much

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#49

A lot of people are bashing the car's appearance, but I think people forget that putting the first driverless cars on the road is as much a PR challenge as it is a technological challenge. Truly autonomous driverless cars is a huge shift in the way we have operated for almost 100 years. There will be a lot of caution and resistance from political groups, concerned citizens, entrenched interests, etc. The car that the…

Everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that using an autonomous car as a cab would be illegal. Current permits are rather specific about having an manufacturer's employee behind the wheel at all times. I'm not an expert, but I wouldn't expect any state to lighten up the requirement of at least having someone behind a wheel for the foreseeable future. I think most patrons of Uber don't really want to be sitting behind the wheel.

Re: Google Self-Driving Car Project's first vehicle prototype

#50

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my c…

High-end sports cars are fun to drive, but wouldn't it be nice to turn on autopilot from time to time? Like if you're stuck in traffic, or you need to do a bit of work, or you get tired during a long trip.

Some might also prefer ownership so that their car is always available with no delay, or so that they know their car will be perfectly clean and odorless.

I think you're right that on-demand will eventually make sense for a majority of people, though.

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