Re/code has an interesting view on Google’s self-driving cars, the invention we’ve wanted since Knight Rider began in 1982. And it’s the invention we are surely most wary of:
The Google self-driving car has come a long way. On a demo excursion through Google’s Mountain View campus and surrounding neighborhoods today, the white Lexus self-driving test vehicle I rode in was much less of a conservative driver than I anticipated.
Sure, it followed the rules of the road, but it also accelerated into the open lane in front of us and then nudged itself around a truck that was edging into our lane so we could drive ahead without pausing.
Maybe I was kidding myself, but from my vantage point in the back seat, I didn’t feel unsafe in the least. The car braked for jaywalkers, paused when it was coming around a curve and couldn’t see whether the light in front of us was green or red, and skittered when it worried that a bus might be turning into our lane.
Gannes’s full feature is a balanced look at the pros and cons of driverless vehicles and of exactly where we are with them now.