There is a lot of hesitation about self-driving cars as giving over complete control of an automobile to an on-board computer doesn't sit well with everyone. But as more major companies like Google reveal more about what makes them work, there seems to be less resistance to the idea. One issue that has been brought up is the inability to control the vehicle in emergency situations when fast maneuvers may be required. But according to the BBC, a recent interview with the project's lead software engineer revealed new details about how cars will respond to immediate safety threats.
Google's Dmitri Dolgov stated to Reuters that the company's self-driving cars are being designed to break the speed limit by 10 MPH under certain circumstances. This will allow the vehicle to keep up with human-driven traffic when the situation arises and move out of harm's way if needed. This is just one of many safety precautions that Google is taking on this project.
"In a separate development on Monday, the White House said it wanted all cars and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent collisions," BBC reporter Joe Miller wrote. "Radio signals emitted by the vehicles would allow them to 'talk' to each other, and alert drivers to potential accidents."
Self-driving tech is evolving
Information technology is beginning to spread into new areas with varied degrees of success. While Google's car still has a long way to go, it seems to be gaining steam as a viable purchase somewhere down the road. Currently, self-driving cars will be street-legal in the United Kingdom starting in 2015 and are limited to a 25 MPH top speed – something that is likely to change as the technology becomes more widely accepted and demanded. According to Miller, there are already a great deal of "driverless" functions that come standard on traditional automobiles.
"Indeed, the cruise control, automatic braking, anti-lane drift and self-parking functions already built into many vehicles offer a certain degree of autonomy," he stated. "But the term is generally used to refer to vehicles that take charge of steering, accelerating, indicating and braking during most if not all of a journey between two points, much in the same way airplanes can be set to autopilot."
With features like these becoming more common every day, driverless cars could very well be a status quo of the future. But only time will tell just how successful this technology will actually be.
