Google tests driverless car

The 'we do no evil' corporation is predicting these will be hitting the streets 'within five years'.

This opens up a host of regulatory and social issues. I hope our government and the EU won't just roll over to have their tummy tickled 'because it's Google'.

* Is it right that vehicles should be driverless? What will happen if there are accidents? Can it ever be foolproof in today's frantic urban environments?

* What about the pleasure of driving?

* Why should we hand dominance in yet another major field to a silicon valley corporation?

* Is Google trustworthy, or will this be another opportunity for them to hoover up personal data for unknown purposes, including, presumably, sharing it with the NSA?

You are several years too late. These things have racked up the mileage to the point that they have already been demonstrated to be drastically safer than human drivers.

Also, Google didn't share data with the NSA. The NSA Tapped it.

They claim that, as do the other Silicon Giants. Yet the NSA documents leaked by Snowden repeatedly show them eagerly and actively co-operating.

It isn't surprising as Google are also working on numerous US government projects, including robotic warfare.

Who cares if they look at your info. Not like I'm doing anything illegal.
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Who cares if they look at your info. Not like I'm doing anything illegal.

Let them make driverless cars - it'll lead to safer roads and more efficient driving. Stop being paranoid.

Who cares if they look at your info. Not like I'm doing anything illegal.

It will lead to Google-controlled roads using Google-controlled maps and Google-controlled thoughts guiding us to Google-controlled destinations.

The 'nothing to worry about if you've done nothing' comment is the hallmark of dictatorships the world over. For sure, you've nothing to worry about. Until the Google robot police come to arrest you on Google charges, try you instantly in the Google online court and carry out your immediate sentence, execution in the Google Driverless Death Van. (See: China for inspiration for the latter. )

You may not be but that is besides the point. You have not consented to give your private information away to a governmental agency which is likely selling on such information to third parties for money, so you are being exploited without realising it. If everyone was complacent like you then we would be surrendering our freedoms and individual liberties which past generations have fought for. These are too precious to give away.

Yeah thats not going to happen. Society as we know it exists to keep people law abiding, happy citizens because they are the most productive and therefore pay taxes. When your understanding of society and business gets past that of a paranoid marxist, we can continue this conversation.

Any proof they are selling on the data? That sounds like a complete misunderstanding of government and corporations.

Fact is, you've already given away your data hundreds of times without knowing it. Club cards, online shopping, twitter, Facebook etc. If everyone was paranoid like you, we'd be eating our children and living in caves in fear of technology.

It will lead to Google-controlled roads using Google-controlled maps and Google-controlled thoughts guiding us to Google-controlled destinations.

There are numerous modes of transport where you have no control over where you go: buses, trains, boat, airplanes etc. Do you worry about how the companies that own the buses or trains could easily change route and take you someplace else every time you use one?

Haven't they been doing this for...years now? Coming along well, safer than human drivers. The only issue is getting the cars to be able to handle human drivers on the road, as they don't follow the rules.

I think that it won't be very long (<10 years) until people who drive for a living, for example lorry drivers, are replaced by these automated machines, for the simple reason that no wage has to be paid, and there are no restrictions on working times, so distributing goods will become much cheaper and much quicker.
This brings up a large problem - what happens to all of the lorry drivers who will be made redundant by this new technology? I think we need some sort of plans in order to accommodate for this, but I'm not quite sure what would happen yet. Possibly, as more and more jobs become automated, we will need a basic citizens income, but this may mean higher taxes.

I think that this is a bigger problem than any worries of Google 'spying' on drivers - I think that industrial automated driving will become commonplace much faster than personal automated driving, and some sort of planning is needed.

I fully support further automation.