Difference Between Google Car and Regular Car
Google’s early October announcement in 2010 about road testing robotic cars that can dive themselves in California stirred the curiosity of numerous people and created a worldwide interest in this new and revolutionary “Google Car”.
How does this new car differ from the regular ones we drive to work every day? Well, for one thing, it really does drive itself. The car runs on Artificial Intelligence and does not need anybody to drive it. This technological breakthrough is part of a new research initiative by Google and is now on its road testing phase.
In theory, a robotic car with all its high-tech sensors and scanners would be able to view its surroundings better than human drivers do. It has a 360° perspective of the road and could react faster than any man can.
All you have to do is give the car your destination and wait. With its GPS navigation system’s digital map, it calculates speed limits, traffic patterns and then plots the best route to take. With the aid of installed cameras, sensors and scanning lasers, the Google car will then, technically, drive you to your destination.
A special device on the Google car’s roof produces a very detailed map of its environment. The device’s rotating sensor scans a minimum of 200 ft in all directions in order to create an accurate 3D map of the Google car’s surroundings. At the car’s rear view mirror, a video camera is mounted to detect traffic lights and help the car’s computers to recognize mobile obstacles such as bicycles and pedestrians. Four standard radar sensors are mounted on the car, one in its rear and the other three in the front, to help estimate the positions of distant objects.
Finally, a sensor installed in the rear wheel measures all small movements that the car makes and determines its accurate map position.
The car’s computer receives all these information and uses them to navigate the road to get to your destination.