Week #3: Look Officer, No Hands: Google Car Drives Itself

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html
By John Markoff
The New York Times
Published on 9 October, 2010

A. Summary  There is a car that can drive itself, that is a program in Google Company.  The car is using artificial- intelligence softward that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by human driver.  There are seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only a little bit human control.  The engineer said the only accident was when one Google car was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.


     The engineer said that the car is safety because robot's reaction is faster than human, and it won't be sleepy or drunk. It can avoid the accidents, because there were lots of accident in America, in 2008, there were 37,000 people died because of car accidents.


     The robot has the GPS in it, so it knows the road, and it has the light and voice to remind people to pay attention, such as it will say "turn ahead" before this happen.
    
     Besides the 15 engineers who is working on the current project, Google hired more people who is with a spotless driving record, to sit in the driver’s seat, paying $15 an hour or more. Google is using six Priuses and an Audi TT in this project.




B. Opinion  When I was a little child, I was thinking about if there is a car could drive itself without human control, how cool if that happen.  That just was a dream in that time period, but time, the dream becomes a truth. There is a kind of car, doesn't need human control.  But I'm not really want to try it right now, because this kind of car just came out, there might be some little problem.  Maybe several years later, this kind of car would be pretty common in human's life.

C. Vocabulary
     curious: eager to learn or know; inquisitive.
          Ex:  I am curious about new things, and often wish I could learn more .
     glimpse: to look briefly; glance.
         Ex:  He glimpsed her as the beautiful girl went by.
     vehicle: any means in or by which someone travels or something is carried or conveyed; a means of    conveyance or transport.
          Ex: Customers should not assume these bulletins apply to their vehicle or that their vehicle will develop the described concern.