Google has been trying to perfect their system of implementing a driverless car since 2010. So far it had tested in driving 1,609 kilometers (1,000 mi) without any human intervention, in addition to 225,308 kilometers (140,000 mi) with occasional human intervention according to Wikipedia.

State of Nevada in the US has passed a legislation that made driverless car legal however; they will come with red plates according to MotorAuthority.

Theories has risen predicting what will the future looks like with this technology-driven less human intervention transportation. An article from Emily Badger of Atlantic Cities explains the concept when driverless (autonomous) cars will be operating in our area’s highway. She shows the concept of Peter Stone, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where cars will eliminate the traffic lights and replace by an autonomous agent directing traffic as well as communicate with other driverless cars when traversing the road at the intersections.

In Stone’s system, there are no stop signs or traffic lights. As autonomous cars approach an intersection, they “call ahead” to a virtual traffic coordinator with information about when they’ll arrive and where they want to go. A computer program at the intersection coordinates these requests and grants the cars “reservations” to use particular routes through the intersection at particular times. The result is an efficient, carefully choreographed, and more or less continuous, flow of traffic as reported by Fast Company.

Stone’s system was made into the video simulation below. (Scary for me to internalize).

Untitled from Amanda Erickson on Vimeo.

Amanda Erickson on Vimeo.

According to Stone that system will make traveling faster since cars coordinate much more finely at the intersection that is why slowdown is not necessary. “It may also be safer. Many car accidents happen at intersections, and as Stone notes, “95% of all accidents are caused by human error,” Stone said.

Google’s car at present look like an ordinary car. But future cars if ever the technology will be adopted by the public may look different. It may look like the cars used in Mars, like what Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie Total Recall or with a virtual driver on Men in Black II.

Check the video on how the Google car travels in heavy traffic.

Meanwhile at present time, India may not need driverless car at all, with amazing drivers getting into the intersection without accident. For now.

I’m wondering how driverless car will survive in Japan

Update: Google Car is really not perfect. Just search the net and a Google driverless car first crash was reported.
via FastCompany. Image by Nowhereelse