Courtesy of Jalopnik:
The Tesla Model S isn’t the first truly autonomous car on the road and available for sale to the public. We’re not there yet, just as a society. But it is the first car with what Tesla’s calling its “Autopilot” system. And if this is the future not of driving, but of sitting in traffic, then please sign me up.
Autopilot, if it isn’t a full autonomous system, is simple enough in execution. It won’t drive you to your ultimate destination, it won’t make navigational turns without your input, and it doesn’t know what the traffic light or the sign in front of you says. So think of it less like an autonomous system, and rather more like the ultimate execution of cruise control. It uses a forward-looking radar, a front-facing camera, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and GPS to make sure everything stays on the road, and it seems to work well enough using those.
But even if it’s just the holy grail of cruise control, its execution is almost perfect.
The self driving car debate in my house is still ongoing and quite passionate.
Interestingly enough my daughter and I are not on the sides of the issue you might imagine.
I am all for self driving cars as I think they will be great for the elderly and awesome for long distance drives.
My daughter on the other hand does not like the idea of machines taking over yet another human responsibility and making us even more reliant on machines.
I see her point, and even agree with it to some degree, but then I think of the gee whiz factor and suddenly I'm like a kid in a toy store.
Besides let's face it, this WILL be the future someday whether we like it or not.
The Tesla Model S autopilot. The future is here. Well almost here.
7:28 AM
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