http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/computer-chauffeur-driverless-cars-are-coming-ready-or-not-701474/?print=1More than any other invention, it put Americans figuratively — and literally — into the driving seat, consigning the old ways to a glimpse in the rearview mirror. But what if technology were to yank that independent driver from behind the wheel, making him or her just another passenger?
This is not fanciful. As the Post-Gazette’s Michael A. Fuoco reported last Sunday, the future is today in the Pittsburgh area. He rode in a vehicle that looked like any other Cadillac SRX, but was not. This car had four passengers but no driver, at least a human driver. A computer assisted by lasers and radar did the driving.
This curious Cadillac was an experimental self-driving vehicle developed at the General Motors-Carnegie Mellon Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab at CMU in Oakland. The goal is to develop an autonomous driving vehicle that can more safely navigate highways than humans can.
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