{"id":37175,"date":"2014-06-04T15:57:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T20:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=37175"},"modified":"2014-06-04T15:57:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T20:57:26","slug":"use-a-self-driving-car-with-no-wheel-google-bets-you-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/06\/04\/use-a-self-driving-car-with-no-wheel-google-bets-you-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Use a Self-Driving Car With No Wheel? Google Bets You Will"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_37177\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A &quot;very early version&quot; Google's prototype vehicle. The self-driving car doesn't include a steering wheel.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/06\/1-Vehicle_Prototype_Image_Banner_Cropped_600px.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-37177\" alt=\"A &quot;very early version&quot; Google's prototype vehicle. The self-driving car doesn't include a steering wheel.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/06\/1-Vehicle_Prototype_Image_Banner_Cropped_600px-300x156.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/06\/1-Vehicle_Prototype_Image_Banner_Cropped_600px-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/06\/1-Vehicle_Prototype_Image_Banner_Cropped_600px-620x324.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/06\/1-Vehicle_Prototype_Image_Banner_Cropped_600px.jpg 794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Google<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A &quot;very early version&quot; Google&#39;s prototype vehicle. The self-driving car doesn&#39;t include a steering wheel.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Google is taking the wheel \u2013\u00a0taking it literally <em>out<\/em> of the car.<\/p>\n<p>The company is set to launch\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/googleblog.blogspot.com\/2014\/05\/just-press-go-designing-self-driving.html\">a test fleet of driverless cars<\/a>\u00a0in the near future. It&#8217;s completely re-imagining the automobile, removing fundamental features like the gas pedal and the steering wheel.\u00a0The work raises a fundamental question: is there a market for such automated vehicles?<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Standard\u2019s David Brown spoke with University of Texas engineering professor\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.caee.utexas.edu\/prof\/kockelman\/home.html\">Kara Kockelman<\/a>, who has analyzed how driverless cars may impact our society.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re all incredibly busy, we\u2019d love to have that time to be getting things done \u2026 legally \u2026 in our vehicle,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/152830230&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although the technology is rapidly progressing, it isn\u2019t without its share of drawbacks.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While the vehicles are generally regarded as safe, it still may take a number of decades before the technology is fully integrated into American roads. \u00a0&#8220;Some people do drive for pleasure,&#8221; Kockelman adds, and admits &#8220;you can get nauseated if you\u2019re not paying attention to the road.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, a new influx of driverless vehicles could potentially increase traffic. Some options to alleviate a traffic surge include creating a variable pricing system discouraging driving during peak hours. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna need some pretty stiff road management decisions made\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Google is concerned, \u201cmost manufacturers can\u2019t design the way Google does, \u201d Kockelman says. \u201cThey\u2019ve got top talent on board and they\u2019ve got lots of money to throw at this very complex problem. They\u2019re probably going to be in the lead for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is taking the wheel \u2013\u00a0taking it literally out of the car. The company is set to launch\u00a0a test fleet of driverless cars\u00a0in the near future. It&#8217;s completely re-imagining the automobile, removing fundamental features like the gas pedal and the steering wheel.\u00a0The work raises a fundamental question: is there a market for such automated vehicles? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37175"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37181,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37175\/revisions\/37181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}