Self driving cars were always a thing of science fiction and something dreamed up from watching the Jetsons and other various futuristic shows of the past. For me the first discussions about Google testing the “cars that drive themselves” was still a bit of science fiction and hard to visualize as something feasible for the modern driver. No; for me the first time I really began realizing that autonomous transportation was within reach is from a series of videos shot during keynote presentation on self-driving cars at IROS 2011 by Sebastian Thrun and Chris Urmson. In the videos we see the advanced technologies controlling the various progression of test vehicles and the ways they use artificial rationale to make thousands of decisions that we make every day when piloting our cars. The advancements made from the first off-road test vehicles to urban cars that can navigate the various challenges of traffic and sporadic drivers are something to behold. They show that the time is coming when we can lean back to read the news and have a cup of coffee whilst in the middle of our morning commute. Watch the three part video series below and give your comments and let us know the first time you may have realized that we need to start asking ourselves “Who’s Driving Us?” as the future rapidly approaches.
