1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 5 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: I am an editor and how stuff works dot Com. 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:26,079 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 7 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,479 Speaker 1: I'm driving in my car. I turn on the radio. 8 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,239 Speaker 1: You want to keep going. I kind of expected you. 9 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,520 Speaker 1: I could pull you a little closer, but I'm sure 10 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: you would say no. I'm going to say no, believe me. 11 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: That's going to lead into our discussion. But before we 12 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:48,159 Speaker 1: get into that, we've got a little, um well, Facebook feedback. 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: Chris just gets so tickled that I do that now. 14 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: And plus yea, the shouting because because people tell me 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: they missed the old listener male intro. You guys are 16 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: that listener mail was yeah, a little. The listener mail 17 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,120 Speaker 1: people are masochists. I mean I'm not. I enjoyed doing 18 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: it too. And anyway, let's get to the actual feedback, 19 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:15,640 Speaker 1: shall we. Phil left this Facebook feedback, not that Phil, 20 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: He says, Hey, guys, since fallout, New Vegas is coming 21 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:20,960 Speaker 1: out this Tuesday. You should probably do a podcast in 22 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: the whole series, you know you want to, Uh, we'll 23 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: fill you're you're right. I mean I love Fallout. I 24 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,320 Speaker 1: love Fallout three in particular. That's really where I started playing. 25 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:33,039 Speaker 1: The series was followed three when it came out for 26 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: the Xbox three sixty. But we usually focus on games 27 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,479 Speaker 1: that have an even longer history than Fallout does, or 28 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: is something that's complete, or there's been a lot of 29 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,560 Speaker 1: controversy around it, particularly when you think the game's never 30 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: gonna come out. But that's not the case. We Fallout 31 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: New Vegas, and since we don't cover new games, we 32 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: don't cover news as it were. Uh, we're just gonna 33 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: have to leave it to the fact that the games 34 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: are pretty cool. Also, if you want to annoy Veronica Belmont, 35 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: you can ask her why she didn't voice the character 36 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 1: of Veronica and instead it was Felicia Day because she 37 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,919 Speaker 1: loves that. Don't tell her I said it. Tell her 38 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:16,760 Speaker 1: that Josh and Chuck of stuff. You shouldn't have said it. Um. Yeah, 39 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: that that's that's funny because we get a lot of 40 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: questions now that you mentioned it. Um, now that we 41 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: don't get so many questions about how to tech people's 42 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: computer problems, which is good because it's kind of difficult 43 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: to do that in our In our roles, we we 44 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:32,079 Speaker 1: do get a lot of questions about what product is 45 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,639 Speaker 1: better than another product, or which computer to choose or 46 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: stuff like that, and it's difficult for us because we 47 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: don't do reviews at how stuff works dot com. The 48 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: site doesn't really do review um, you know, entries or 49 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: anything like that. Occasionally we'll talk about something on the blogs, 50 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: but not in not really as a product review, and 51 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: it's sort of difficult for us to tell you, you you know, 52 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: which model of headphone to buy or which video game 53 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: is worth your money. Yeah, I mean, of course we 54 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,079 Speaker 1: we talked to other journalists and can point you in 55 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: a ton of different directions as far as quality resource 56 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,079 Speaker 1: resources on that. And unfortunately, in this particular case, I've 57 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: never played any of the Fallout series, although I was 58 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,080 Speaker 1: aware of it from the very from the very beginning. 59 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: It was one of those games that I always meant 60 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: to get to and then never did. It's it's definitely 61 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: an interesting series and I am eager to play Fallout 62 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: New Vegas. Actually, my wife last night offered to drive 63 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: over and pick up a copy for me. But I 64 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: had just purchased three new games, and I was like, 65 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,519 Speaker 1: I can't justify spending that much on yet another new 66 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 1: game after I just bought three something. Maybe we can 67 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: mention it later. You can tell us what you think 68 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: when you get around to it. Sure, Yeah, that'll be 69 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: sometime in There are a lot of titles right now. 70 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: So let's go on to the actual topic of the 71 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: day and the today. We're going to talk about autonomous vehicles, 72 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 1: self driving cars, right, and UM, I have a I 73 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: have a little statistic to throw out before we really 74 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: dive into this. So according to the Texas Transport Station Institute, 75 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: which does these big annual studies on traffic and and uh, 76 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: commute times that kind of stuff across the United States. 77 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: Of course they're big different Texas. Yeah, yeah, don't mess 78 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,240 Speaker 1: with them, but they do state by state. They don't 79 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 1: they don't constran just Texas. Uh. They calculated using new calculations. Actually, 80 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: they just came out with a new way of calculating, 81 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: a new method, a new method, right, a new algorithm 82 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 1: relate to to calculate averages that they think will be 83 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:34,919 Speaker 1: more accurate than previous ones. Um. But they said that 84 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,599 Speaker 1: the average annual delay in hours due to traffic in 85 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: two thousand seven, which is the latest that they had 86 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: data available, was around twenty nine hours per year. That's 87 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: the average. The worst city in the United States. Can 88 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:54,839 Speaker 1: you guess do we live in it? No? Where we 89 00:04:54,880 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: live in the third worst DC, DC second worst is 90 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: worse than Atlanta and d C l A. I love 91 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,159 Speaker 1: l A. Los Angeles. You top out the nation was 92 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: sixty nine point five hours of delay each year due 93 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: to traffic. So yeah, almost three full days lost every 94 00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: year sitting in the car due to traffic. Wow. So uh. 95 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 1: There are ways that we could address these traffic problems. 96 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: The traditional ways you build more roads, which unfortunately turns 97 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 1: out doesn't really help so much. Just means you get 98 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: more people on the road. That's funny because I thought 99 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,919 Speaker 1: where we were going we don't need roads. Nice. But 100 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: another method is to try and take the human element 101 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: out of the equation. Yeah, you know what, it's it's funny. Um. 102 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,919 Speaker 1: Long before we came to work for Discovery Communications, UM, 103 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,239 Speaker 1: I fell in love with a series of articles written 104 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: by Hannah Holmes on Discovery dot com, which, according to 105 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: my iPad, they still exist, they're still up there. She 106 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,840 Speaker 1: did a series called The Skinny On and Uh, one 107 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,440 Speaker 1: of my favorites was traffic jam ghosts. You know those 108 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:11,919 Speaker 1: times when you're you're backed up in traffic on the 109 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,480 Speaker 1: expressway or you know, even on a regular street, and 110 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 1: you know it's just it's just bad everything. All the 111 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: lanes are backed up and you're inching along and then 112 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,160 Speaker 1: suddenly there's nothing there and everybody's driving like normal. Well, 113 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,479 Speaker 1: as it turns out, that is due to human error. 114 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,720 Speaker 1: Like one, there was something there at some point, but 115 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: because people are not all moving at the same rate 116 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:36,720 Speaker 1: of speed, um, it takes a while for that that 117 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: glut to dissipate again. Yeah, there's a that's that's a 118 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,359 Speaker 1: very good point because we're not only we're humans. We 119 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: all have our own reactions in our own way of 120 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: dealing with things, and uh, and so something tiny can 121 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: develop into a huge traffic jam. Let's say that. Let's 122 00:06:55,440 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: say that the traffic is heavy but moving right. Uh, 123 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: And you think, well, as long as the road has 124 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: the capacity to hold the number of cars that are 125 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: on it, traffic should keep moving. There's no reason why 126 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: traffic should stop. Until you think, all right, well, someone 127 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: taps on their brakes. Now the person behind that car 128 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: will react in one of various ways, not they just 129 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: tap on their brakes. If everyone just tapped on their brakes, 130 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,360 Speaker 1: then you would have a slight slowing, but everything would 131 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: keep moving. But some people will hit their brakes harder, 132 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: or they will move into another lane, which will then 133 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: cause someone else behind them to react. And this is 134 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 1: a domino effect, and it will keep going back and 135 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: it will cause traffic jams and congestion. Uh. Now, of course, 136 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 1: you can always have an event that's much more severe 137 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: than that, like a crash or uh, some debris in 138 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,560 Speaker 1: the road or weather conditions or whatever, or ladders in Atlanta, 139 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: or ladders or you know, or zebras there was the 140 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: time the zebra got on the highway. At any rate, 141 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:58,680 Speaker 1: those things can also clearly cause traffic. But but a 142 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: lot of it does come from just that initial human 143 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: reaction to an event that then balloons out of control. 144 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 1: And as far as traffic is concerned, as other people 145 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: react to that first person's reaction, so it just it 146 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: becomes a chain reaction or don't react, in which case 147 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: there's another accident, which right, and and there doesn't even 148 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: necessarily have to be an accident at all. It could, 149 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: like I said, just be as simple as someone tapping 150 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: on the brakes. So creating an automated driving vehicle in 151 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 1: a way, sounds like this could help take care of 152 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: this sort of problem because the automated driving vehicles are 153 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: going to react much more quickly than humans can, and 154 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:45,400 Speaker 1: theoretically in a way that's going to be safer than 155 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,440 Speaker 1: just a human like quick gut reaction. Also, they don't 156 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,480 Speaker 1: get distracted by stuff like the pretty girl in the 157 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: car next to you, Hey, baby, how are you doing cars? 158 00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: Or the or say something something on the side of 159 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,200 Speaker 1: the road, or or the song that came on the 160 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: radio is the song that you hate the most in 161 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: the world or you love the most in the world, 162 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,200 Speaker 1: And so your attention is pulled away from the road 163 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 1: for just a little bit while you either you know, 164 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: try to punch a hole in your radio or you 165 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 1: do the chair dance, which I'm doing right now. You 166 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,839 Speaker 1: can't tell, but Chris can anyway, stop it, okay. So 167 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:29,840 Speaker 1: automated cars would not obviously would not fall victim to 168 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: these sort of problems. I mean, they wouldn't be like, hey, 169 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:34,960 Speaker 1: look at the circuits on that car. Next, Hey, baby, 170 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,120 Speaker 1: I see you like to driff. Yeah, they don't do that, 171 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,520 Speaker 1: um unless it's maybe Kit and he's had a little 172 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:46,079 Speaker 1: too much anyway, So I don't know how I got 173 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:49,319 Speaker 1: off in this goofy tangents, probably as I'm hungry. Um. So, 174 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 1: the the that would make this theoretically would make driving safer, 175 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: assuming that, of course lots of people have these cars. 176 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: You take the human error element out. There are other 177 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: problems that will come into play, and we'll talk about them, 178 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: but theoretically it would mean that traffic would move move 179 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: more smoothly and there'll be fewer accidents. In fact, that 180 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: was a big point that was made recently in a 181 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: discussion that we'll get to about self driving cars and 182 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: how they could in theory cut traffic fatalities in half 183 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:26,439 Speaker 1: or more. Now, despite the fact that this has been 184 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:29,559 Speaker 1: in the news a lot lately with a venture we 185 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,640 Speaker 1: will discuss in a minute, this is certainly not a 186 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:36,199 Speaker 1: new idea by any stretch of the imagination, right. Yeah. Actually, uh, 187 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: I came across a great post on Technologizer by Harry McCracken, 188 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: who kind of did a walk down memory lane with 189 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: various stories about predictions for self driving automobiles, the first 190 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:57,040 Speaker 1: of which dated from nineteen thirty three in Popular Science, sorry, 191 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: popular mechanics. Mechanics. Yeah, a lot of the uh. He 192 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: listed several of them. Um. It seems like they were 193 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:06,720 Speaker 1: either in Popular Science or popular mechanics. But the first 194 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 1: was Popular Mechanics. Um. And basically it seemed kind of 195 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: far fetched, at least based on the the UH section. Yeah, 196 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:18,840 Speaker 1: I mean they were. They were looking at the fact 197 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,720 Speaker 1: that you had garage door openers. He's like, well, I mean, 198 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:23,240 Speaker 1: if you can automate that, we can get the car 199 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: to back out of the driveway itself and turn itself 200 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,400 Speaker 1: on actually would go the other way. Well, yeah, turns 201 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 1: off on them back out. No, it depends what all right, 202 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:34,320 Speaker 1: I mean, if you were for we're backing itself out, yes, 203 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: but I mean you could also there are other things 204 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:37,560 Speaker 1: you could have. Yes, you could have some sort of 205 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: automated sliding platform, yeah, or something like that. So I mean, yeah, 206 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: that it doesn't seem that far fetched, but yeah, it 207 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:48,360 Speaker 1: probably was a little for the time, especially you know, 208 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: based on the technology they had available to them. And 209 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: then the fifties rolled around and everybody got into that future. Yeah, 210 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,960 Speaker 1: that the same same sort of futuristic optimism them that 211 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,120 Speaker 1: gave us disney Lands tomorrow Land. That's funny you should 212 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:06,719 Speaker 1: mention that you had a feeling I was going to 213 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: mention this. Didn't you know this was I just randomly 214 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: decided to say that, right, This is perfectly honest. I 215 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: did not know you were going to mention Disneyland. The 216 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,400 Speaker 1: the long very long term listeners will remember that I 217 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:22,400 Speaker 1: brought up a specific episode of the Disneyland TV show 218 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:26,839 Speaker 1: from Oddly that's the same year that some of these 219 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 1: other articles from Popular Mechanics, Popular Science came out, uh 220 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: with the Magic Highway USA, right right, right, I remember 221 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,360 Speaker 1: you showed you showed me that clip. Yeah, yeah, And 222 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: they had they had all kinds of stuff. Electric eyes 223 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:41,559 Speaker 1: would be embedded in the road so they would light 224 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:43,960 Speaker 1: up at night and you could drive on them. And 225 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: they'll have automatic signs that will tell you know where 226 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,560 Speaker 1: to go because it knows where you're going. So say 227 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:52,319 Speaker 1: you're going to uh Lake Tahoe, it will say, oh, 228 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 1: well you want to turn right seventeen miles up ahead, 229 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: and things like that. They had all sorts of far 230 00:12:57,480 --> 00:12:59,840 Speaker 1: fetched stuff like it could tell you what the traffic 231 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,000 Speaker 1: is in your car, so you know where there's a 232 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,200 Speaker 1: traffic jam up ahead, and your rear view mirror will 233 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,080 Speaker 1: be replaced by a camera. Oh wait, there's last two. Actually, 234 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:11,520 Speaker 1: uh yeah, but there were there were other things like 235 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,560 Speaker 1: it did get into the whole thing. While you'll insert 236 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: a punch card into your car and it will automatically 237 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:21,120 Speaker 1: program the route for you, so you so Dad can 238 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:25,440 Speaker 1: take a conference call on his video monitor in front 239 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 1: of him, or knocks back five or six scotches. Because 240 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,200 Speaker 1: this is the late fifties, it wasn't that didn't happen 241 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: in the Disney Langue. But they also they had the 242 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 1: car that breaks up, so mom and the kids go 243 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,960 Speaker 1: in one direction, that goes in the other direction. So it's, yeah, 244 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: a little individual personal transports, kind of like the Jetson's. 245 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 1: Yeah it wasn't you know that that seems even more 246 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,200 Speaker 1: realistic than the part where you get to the side 247 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:53,200 Speaker 1: of the building and the whole outside of the building 248 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,160 Speaker 1: lifts you to the level you're supposed to be one 249 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:59,960 Speaker 1: to that though, because that idea continued in a little 250 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 1: movie called Minority Report. But we'll get to that. So 251 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,440 Speaker 1: the other the articles you you alluded to in the 252 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:08,640 Speaker 1: there was one in Popular Science called the car that 253 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 1: drives itself, and one in Popular Mechanics called this car 254 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: has electric brains. So this was really the time when 255 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 1: engineers were kind of looking at ways to automate a 256 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:24,680 Speaker 1: lot of the processes in a car. UM the night 257 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,080 Speaker 1: one was an interesting one because that was a proposal 258 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: to embed along highways radio control boxes. Yeah, this is 259 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: the one in Popular Science. Yes, yes, so the idea 260 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 1: would be to use these radio control boxes to guide 261 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:45,560 Speaker 1: cars through various highway systems. Um. The one in Popular 262 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 1: Mechanics looked looked at a college professor who had installed 263 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: a or was designing a car that was going to 264 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,880 Speaker 1: use um acoustics and gyroscopes and other stuff like that 265 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:58,680 Speaker 1: so that the car could drive itself. So these are 266 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,280 Speaker 1: two very different systems. And the first one you're talking 267 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: about creating an infrastructure in which cars would navigate through. 268 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: The other one is looking at focusing all the technology 269 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,840 Speaker 1: in the car itself. Yea, And those are two themes 270 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 1: that kind of carry through throughout the whole self driving 271 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: car concept. Yeah. I think that these, uh, these two 272 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: articles are actually the start of uh. There probably was 273 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 1: other stuff too. But I mean this is probably the 274 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: era in which people started taking the idea seriously and 275 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,080 Speaker 1: started looking at realistic possibilities to make this stuff work, 276 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 1: because they are still talking about these technologies now as 277 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: as methods of handling this. Yeah. Yeah. There was another 278 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 1: Popular Science article in nineteen sixty seven called how You'll 279 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: Drive the Amazing herb Mobile Mobile verb Mobile, And the 280 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:47,280 Speaker 1: idea here was that you could manually drive this vehicle 281 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: when you were, say, going on across country trip, but 282 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: then whenever you would enter an urban area that had 283 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: its own infrastructure, you would connect to that and it 284 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: would become almost like a little individual sub why car, 285 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:06,120 Speaker 1: which again just like Minority Report, Herbie rides again Herbie 286 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: goes bananas. So the the I've said Minority Report a 287 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,080 Speaker 1: couple of times the Minority Reports. Steven Spielberg went to 288 00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,400 Speaker 1: Lexus and said, we're doing this movie. It's set in Washington, 289 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: d C. Tell me what you envisioned cars to be like. 290 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:29,040 Speaker 1: And although we clearly will be in the singularity by then, 291 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 1: and thus we will have merged with cars, they went 292 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:34,640 Speaker 1: ahead and went with the whole non singularity version um 293 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: and and their cars were very much the way the 294 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven article mentioned it was a maglev system 295 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:45,520 Speaker 1: in the in the minority report that your car would 296 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:47,840 Speaker 1: connect to and it would even allow you to drive 297 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: up buildings, so you would park your car at your Like, 298 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: let's say you live in a high rise apartment, you 299 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: can actually drive up the side and granted you're not 300 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: doing the driving the cars doing the driving the car 301 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,480 Speaker 1: right move up the side of the building to your 302 00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:03,840 Speaker 1: apartment and you would just get step out of your 303 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: car to your apartment without having to go to an 304 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 1: elevator or anything like that. Literally door to door type 305 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:13,439 Speaker 1: stuff makes me think of the The Great Muppet Caper, 306 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:18,040 Speaker 1: like where are you going the Happiness Hotel? Where are you? 307 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:20,480 Speaker 1: Where are you staying? Second floor? Oh, I'm sorry, you 308 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,240 Speaker 1: can only take you was first the lobby because he 309 00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 1: didn't have that technology anyway, So we could we could 310 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,440 Speaker 1: talk about the history all day. Yeah, right, So let's 311 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:33,800 Speaker 1: let's move on a little bit. We'll we'll head up 312 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: to recent years, Like let's go to two thousand before 313 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:42,760 Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. 314 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:49,280 Speaker 1: Now DARPA has been the genesis of many amazing technological developments, 315 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: over the years, including a little thing you might know 316 00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: called the Internet. Yes, but then they didn't really have 317 00:17:55,920 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: the d They were sort of d less. Yeah, they 318 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,359 Speaker 1: were ARPA back then, but they're DARPA now. And um. 319 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:06,879 Speaker 1: They issued a challenge back in two thousand two for 320 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,879 Speaker 1: teams to create self driving cars that would be able 321 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,719 Speaker 1: to go through a predetermined route, but they would not 322 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,400 Speaker 1: get the predetermined route until the day of the competition. 323 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: And uh, it was supposed to be both on road 324 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: and off road capabilities, and it was a it was 325 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 1: a pretty good distance too that they were supposed to go. 326 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:29,960 Speaker 1: This was the two thousand four Grand Challenge. So in 327 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,639 Speaker 1: two thousand four you had all these teams join uh 328 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:37,160 Speaker 1: this uh, this Grand Challenge, um, and sadly none of 329 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: them successfully navigated the course. Well, um, that was only 330 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:44,679 Speaker 1: the first of the Grand Challenges, though they followed it 331 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: up again in two thousand five and again and believe 332 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, Yeah, and two thou two thousand 333 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: fives was essentially a new version of the same course. 334 00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:58,359 Speaker 1: And that year was a different story. That year they 335 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:03,160 Speaker 1: actually had um a couple of teams finish the one 336 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: that one was Stanford's team And in two thousand seven 337 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: and I believe six teams completed the course, Yes, six teams, 338 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: and two thousand seven was different like two thousand four 339 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: and two thousand five was again like the kind of this. Uh. 340 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 1: It started in um in California and ended in uh 341 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,360 Speaker 1: uh where was it Nevada? I think, yeah, and then Nevada, 342 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,280 Speaker 1: So it was it was a pretty long trip and 343 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: it had mostly there was a little bit of suburban 344 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,199 Speaker 1: navigation they had to go through, but mostly it was 345 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:36,040 Speaker 1: cross country. The two thousand seven challenge was an urban 346 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: challenge where the vehicles had to navigate an urban landscape 347 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,680 Speaker 1: and there were there were cars already on the road 348 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:48,119 Speaker 1: that were manned vehicles that had like professional stunt drivers 349 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: driving the cars, and they were in very well protected 350 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: you know, roll cage type scenario kind of vehicles that 351 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: would simulate traffic. So these automated self driving cars were 352 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:01,959 Speaker 1: supposed to be a navigate through an urban setting and 353 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,919 Speaker 1: be able to go through traffic without having any terrible 354 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:09,440 Speaker 1: accidents closed course, professional driver do not attempt, right and 355 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 1: uh yeah. Out of the eleven teams that qualified for 356 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,119 Speaker 1: the actual events, six of them did eventually finish it. 357 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,439 Speaker 1: Uh not all six finished them within the time limit 358 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:23,320 Speaker 1: that was set, but there were six teams that actually 359 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 1: managed to get through. The team that placed first that 360 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,800 Speaker 1: year was the Tartan Racing team from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and 361 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,879 Speaker 1: they won two million dollars. Stanford that year came in 362 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 1: second place, even though technically they finished the course first, 363 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:39,320 Speaker 1: but they they had more little strikes against them for 364 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,840 Speaker 1: tiny little I think Stanford had a collision. Actually there 365 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:47,480 Speaker 1: was one. And when I say collision, I mean, oh no, 366 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:49,520 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. It wasn't Stanford. I actually have the note here. 367 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: It was Cornell and m I T. They weren't disqualified. 368 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,919 Speaker 1: They gently bumped sides as they both tried to share 369 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,520 Speaker 1: a lane, and they that's when people went up to 370 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: the Cornell and in my two people and said, did 371 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:07,040 Speaker 1: you not know that a physical object cannot exist within 372 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,639 Speaker 1: the same space and time as a second physical object 373 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,159 Speaker 1: within the same dimension. I'm I'm willing to bet that 374 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: they knew that already. Well didn't he wouldn't know it 375 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:21,680 Speaker 1: from that, I'm kidding. If you go to Cornell or 376 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 1: m I T. I know you're smarder than I am. 377 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,440 Speaker 1: Right to me, yes, But as anyone who follows racing, nose, 378 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:30,640 Speaker 1: trade and paints part of it. Yeah, trading paint. Yeah, wait, 379 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:33,399 Speaker 1: way to go. If you play burnout you would be 380 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:37,159 Speaker 1: great at this. Um. Yeah, it was funny. I've got 381 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 1: this little let me let me read this one little 382 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: bit that came from the press release of the two 383 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:45,280 Speaker 1: thousand seven Urban Challenge. After strong starts by all the finalists, 384 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,879 Speaker 1: by midden morning, almost half of the field had been 385 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,000 Speaker 1: removed from the race for a variety of reasons. Terra Max, 386 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,080 Speaker 1: a returning crowd favorite, went a ryan a parking lot 387 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: and was stopped moments before entering the old Commissary building. 388 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,440 Speaker 1: It was hungry, apparently, So this would be a bad 389 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,520 Speaker 1: self driving car to be sitting in. If it if 390 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: it disregards the presence of a building, that is a failure. 391 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,400 Speaker 1: No no, no, no please, no no no no no, yeah, 392 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,640 Speaker 1: and uh. That kind of leads us to even more 393 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: recent developments. So lots of different engineers are working on 394 00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: self driving cars. It's not just in the United States. 395 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 1: There are teams in Italy and Germany. In fact, I 396 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,200 Speaker 1: was talking to christ before the podcast that a team 397 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:32,639 Speaker 1: in Germany has created a self driving passat that is 398 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,600 Speaker 1: called the m I g MEG because it stands for 399 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:39,199 Speaker 1: made in Germany. I still think it could be a 400 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:43,159 Speaker 1: strike fighter. I'm just wondering why it wouldn't be a 401 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:49,639 Speaker 1: D for Deutschland. I don't know anyway, So there's a 402 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,040 Speaker 1: will probably be more letters if it were in German. 403 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: There's another big company that's been in the news recently 404 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:59,440 Speaker 1: for introducing a self driving car program. M hmmm, who 405 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 1: could that be. It's not Apple, it's not Microsoft, it's Google. Yeah, 406 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:08,880 Speaker 1: Google made the news. Actually, this was one of those 407 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 1: things that was interesting. I had heard a rumor and 408 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,360 Speaker 1: I won't I won't explain how, but I had heard 409 00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:16,480 Speaker 1: a rumor that Google was working on something that was 410 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,240 Speaker 1: mind blowing and unlike anything else they had ever done. 411 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 1: And it turned out it was this. That's that was 412 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: the extent of the rumor I heard. By the way, 413 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: I had no idea what it actually pertained to until 414 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: the news broke that Google, and the news broke by 415 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:33,480 Speaker 1: Google blogging about it. It's a big surprise, um. But 416 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 1: Google revealed that they their engineers have been working on 417 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,880 Speaker 1: a new method of self driving cars, and they said 418 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:44,440 Speaker 1: that their goal was to quote help prevent traffic accidents, 419 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 1: free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally 420 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: changing car use. And so far their cars which uh 421 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: it's a fleet of priuses and one al D E 422 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:03,240 Speaker 1: T T. According to the Times, Uh, they have logged 423 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:08,040 Speaker 1: over a hundred and forty thousand driving miles. Impressive. Yeah, 424 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:13,840 Speaker 1: most impressive Jedi yet. Um there. So how do they 425 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: do this? While their cars have video cameras, laser range finders, 426 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,720 Speaker 1: and radar sensors that allow them to to be able 427 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,480 Speaker 1: to see the traffic, to perceive the traffic that happens 428 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:29,320 Speaker 1: to be around them. As for getting around, they rely 429 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:33,120 Speaker 1: upon maps that are generated by cars that actually had 430 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:37,879 Speaker 1: manned There were manned vehicles, Yeah, I should point out that. 431 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:44,119 Speaker 1: Um that well, of course one unlike the DARPA Urban Challenge, Um, 432 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:47,440 Speaker 1: there are actual other cars on actual roads. Although the 433 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,480 Speaker 1: I believe the police are aware of where they're going 434 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:52,480 Speaker 1: and what their plans are. Just to be on the 435 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:54,120 Speaker 1: safe side. They want to be on the up and up. 436 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,000 Speaker 1: And there is a passenger, There is a human being 437 00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,200 Speaker 1: in the car, actually two passengers, yeah, one of the 438 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,480 Speaker 1: US one no, no, no, there's one who's a driver 439 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,879 Speaker 1: who can take over the car if necessary. There's some 440 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: sort of failure. No no, no, no, no no no, 441 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:11,680 Speaker 1: it's exactly fix it, fix it, fixis That's how That's 442 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:16,600 Speaker 1: all Fry would say it. Um My wife would love 443 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:20,359 Speaker 1: that reference, but she doesn't listen to my podcast. The 444 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: the other one was a software engineer. So you had 445 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: two people in the car. Uh that could impact the vehicle. 446 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: Not literally, but they could They could change the course 447 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,199 Speaker 1: of the vehicle if it became necessary. Yes, um, And 448 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,159 Speaker 1: these cars were not low profile. They had very a 449 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: very large weird rack on top of them that contained 450 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 1: the equipment that allowed them to navigate through traffic. But 451 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:50,320 Speaker 1: you know, you look at one of these things and 452 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,680 Speaker 1: you're like, something's going on there, because that ain't right, 453 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,439 Speaker 1: you know. I just it looked unlike anything else you 454 00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:58,680 Speaker 1: had ever seen. And I hope there are no low 455 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: overpasses as something Google street view cars have found out 456 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: that antenna it wasn't that well. First of all, they 457 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,320 Speaker 1: were on press which are not very tall vehicles, so 458 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: that helped. But the yeah, it's kind of an interesting 459 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,840 Speaker 1: thing that this was a project that they've been doing 460 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: secretly for a while now. Um. And but again they 461 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,080 Speaker 1: were at least smart enough to let the local police know, 462 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,600 Speaker 1: because you know, you don't want the police to find 463 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: out after the fact. I heard that one of them 464 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,320 Speaker 1: has been involved in an accident, but in that case, 465 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,200 Speaker 1: it was an accident where the vehicle was rear ended 466 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 1: by another by a manned vehicle. So in that case 467 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 1: it was not not necessarily the fault of the vehicle. 468 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,240 Speaker 1: But I don't know the full details. It could be 469 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,520 Speaker 1: it could be that the Google vehicle stopped short and 470 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: didn't give the person behind enough time to react. I 471 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: don't know the details. I just I had heard before 472 00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,000 Speaker 1: we went into the studio that one of them had 473 00:26:55,040 --> 00:27:00,200 Speaker 1: been involved in a minor fenderbender accident. Um and and 474 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 1: so without any more information, I can't really say whether 475 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: it was the fault of the driver or the driver 476 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: less car. Um. It's an interesting concept. What what's your 477 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,360 Speaker 1: take on on self driving vehicles? What do you think 478 00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,520 Speaker 1: about it? Well, I'm um, it's funny because this goes 479 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,480 Speaker 1: back to a to another related topic that Josh Clark 480 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:23,680 Speaker 1: and I talked about on Stuff You Should Know way 481 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:25,359 Speaker 1: back when I used to be the co host of 482 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 1: that show, like two years plus ago. Now, back when 483 00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:32,720 Speaker 1: our podcast we're all five minutes long, we talked about 484 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,800 Speaker 1: personal rapid transport, and this seems very much like that 485 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:37,879 Speaker 1: where you you know, you get in your vehicle, you 486 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:39,920 Speaker 1: tell tell it where it is you want to go, 487 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:44,639 Speaker 1: and it takes you there. Um. I do think taking 488 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,840 Speaker 1: the human side out is both good and bad, because 489 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,360 Speaker 1: in the good sense, if you can regulate everything, get 490 00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,399 Speaker 1: it to the point where everybody is moving at the 491 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,840 Speaker 1: same speed, the vehicles are talking to one another, so 492 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: you can say, oh, car number sixteen way on up 493 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:02,280 Speaker 1: a head is breaking, I should slow down. In comparison, 494 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: you could theoretically cut down on some of their traffic 495 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:09,119 Speaker 1: jam problems and uh, you know, potentially cut down on accidents, 496 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,320 Speaker 1: might speed up drive time as as Google said, um, 497 00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: you know, perhaps cut down on carbon emissions. But at 498 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: the same time people like to drive. I mean you 499 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,680 Speaker 1: could you could probably talk to Scott and Ben about 500 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,639 Speaker 1: at Car Stuff about that, because Scott's talked a little 501 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,080 Speaker 1: bit about about self driving cars on Car Stuff before. 502 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: I should say so, if you have not heard the 503 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 1: Car Stuff podcasts, you might want to check those out, 504 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:33,919 Speaker 1: because I think they did do as a podcast specifically 505 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,280 Speaker 1: about self driving cars, and they talk about all kinds 506 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:40,240 Speaker 1: of other vehicular stuff too. It's just it's a fascinating podcast. 507 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: But but you know, people like to drive too. And 508 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:44,560 Speaker 1: then a lot of the comments I've seen that are 509 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: negative about self driving cars are not you know, oh well, 510 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: you know what about foot traffic, which is a legitimate concern. 511 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 1: Could the cars if the cars talk to each other, 512 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,600 Speaker 1: they're talking to each other, But you know, the lady 513 00:28:56,640 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: walking or dog and listening to music who's really too 514 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,640 Speaker 1: into her favorite song and not paying attention the car. 515 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,760 Speaker 1: The car is not going to know what she's thinking. 516 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:07,480 Speaker 1: So you know, you can't really take those kinds of 517 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:09,760 Speaker 1: unknowns into that. But more than that, I've seen I've 518 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:12,520 Speaker 1: seen comments by people who are going to say, but 519 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: I like driving my car. Yeah, I think, um, I 520 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,160 Speaker 1: think this will really I think it'll really come into 521 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,040 Speaker 1: play more for things like urban driving. And the reason 522 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: why I think that's because the people who like driving 523 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,520 Speaker 1: their car are not are also the same people who 524 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,520 Speaker 1: say they hate traffic. Um, driving your car and sitting 525 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:37,160 Speaker 1: in traffic are two different things. When you're driving, you're sitting. Yeah, 526 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 1: I think what you're thinking about driving and driving a car, 527 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,400 Speaker 1: you're thinking, Okay, you're on the open road and you 528 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 1: can you can you know, open it up a little 529 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,440 Speaker 1: bit and you can take in the vista and really 530 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: feel the you know what you're how you're the performance 531 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,040 Speaker 1: of your car is doing that kind of stuff which 532 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,720 Speaker 1: you don't get when you're sitting in traffic that's just 533 00:29:55,760 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 1: crawling along on a freeway somewhere. Um So, I think 534 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,600 Speaker 1: if it's one of those systems where you can take 535 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,640 Speaker 1: manual control of your vehicle or you can hand it 536 00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:09,720 Speaker 1: over to an automated system whenever you whenever, that would 537 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: be the most beneficial. I think those stand the best 538 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:18,080 Speaker 1: chance of success, unless it's mandated, in which case I 539 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,240 Speaker 1: don't see how that works because I mean, you're talking 540 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: about having to tell people you've got to get rid 541 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,959 Speaker 1: of this private property that you legitimately own and replace 542 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:31,320 Speaker 1: it with something new. The resistance to that would be phenomenal. Yeah. Well, 543 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: I do think unlike those earlier articles from ninety three 544 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: and back at that time, I think we're a lot 545 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,640 Speaker 1: closer technologically to being to having what we need to 546 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: make it happen. It's just going to be difficult to overcome. Uh. 547 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: You know, we've already got sensors that will tell you 548 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: if somebody's drifting off when they go to sleep. They 549 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:52,920 Speaker 1: could tell where you know, whether there's a lane change 550 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 1: coming up and you're in danger, whether you're leaving your lane, 551 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: things like that. Decent detection, collision detection is well, these 552 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: things are all very useful. But um, one thing that 553 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,480 Speaker 1: I think is very interesting was Palm Paul Marks's take 554 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,719 Speaker 1: on it from the New Scientists, who says that Google 555 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:13,320 Speaker 1: is not completely altruistic and wanting to implement this technology. 556 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: Oh yes, all right, why don't you explain that and 557 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: then I'll have an explosion and then we can wrap 558 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:20,719 Speaker 1: this up. Okay, Well, you remember a minute ago when 559 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,480 Speaker 1: I was a few minutes ago now when I was 560 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: talking about the highway Magic Highway US a video and well, 561 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: Dad's going to be taking a conference call on his 562 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:33,400 Speaker 1: video screen as he's driving. Well, uh, Mr Marks feels 563 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,120 Speaker 1: that Google maybe planning something similar too. And if you're 564 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,040 Speaker 1: not driving, if the danger has taken out of taking 565 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:43,120 Speaker 1: your eyes off the wheel to take a conference call 566 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: or watch a movie or say click on a few 567 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:51,280 Speaker 1: AdSense ads, Google would like your eyes on its screen, 568 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 1: thank you very much, and not on the road. And 569 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: let's just take the stress of driving out so that 570 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: you can be more plugged into the Internet instead. Mr Marks, 571 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:10,040 Speaker 1: this is Jonathan speaking. Um, do you commonly step outside 572 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: on your porch and shake your fist at the kids 573 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: and yell at them to get off your lawn? Okay, 574 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: well you're already a Mr. Grouchy Pants. We already have 575 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: established this show of the podcast. So at any rate, 576 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,480 Speaker 1: here's here's here's how I look at this. I know 577 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:25,880 Speaker 1: it's easy to look at Google and say it's a 578 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: mega corporation and therefore anything it does is somewhat suspect. 579 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,960 Speaker 1: I mean, we are automatically have an initial innate distrust 580 00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,400 Speaker 1: in these sort of mega corporations, and that's that's a 581 00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,320 Speaker 1: healthy thing to have. We should always maintain that sort 582 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: of skepticism and ask questions. However, Google is also a 583 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: company founded by engineers. Engineers, as I have said before, 584 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,600 Speaker 1: often look at the world as a series of problems 585 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: that need to be solved in some way. They're not 586 00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 1: looking at it as a way of making money necessarily, 587 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,840 Speaker 1: although that is always nice. They are looking at it 588 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,440 Speaker 1: as a way of saying, hey, there's this fundamental issue 589 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 1: that we face day to day that is somehow impacting 590 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: our lives in a negative way. How can we solve 591 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,800 Speaker 1: this so that it no longer has such a negative impact? 592 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,520 Speaker 1: And it really does come from a wish to make 593 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,680 Speaker 1: the world a better place. I really do feel that 594 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 1: many of the things Google does comes from this desire, 595 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: right that at least the initial idea, the the the 596 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:37,280 Speaker 1: drive to do it. So to speak to I know, 597 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:39,120 Speaker 1: I know as soon as I said it, I knew 598 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,920 Speaker 1: you were going to do that anyway. So drive to 599 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:45,800 Speaker 1: to create these ideas I think comes from a pure intention. Now, 600 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 1: Google's a company, so it's in their interest to monetize 601 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 1: these ideas and to make money off of them, generate 602 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: revenue from them. So yeah, ultimately what you get from 603 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,360 Speaker 1: as the product of this idea is going to be 604 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:06,320 Speaker 1: somewhat sullied by capitalism. It's it has to happen. But 605 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:09,040 Speaker 1: without the capitalism, you don't have the money to fund 606 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:14,600 Speaker 1: the idea. So I'm not so quick to jump onto Hey, 607 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:16,319 Speaker 1: you know why Google is doing this. They're doing it 608 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:18,640 Speaker 1: so that they can take money from your pockets by 609 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,799 Speaker 1: getting your eyeballs on this advertising. No, I think the 610 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,239 Speaker 1: reason why Google is doing it is they're saying, you know, 611 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:28,400 Speaker 1: we've got this incredible amount of knowledge and expertise at 612 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,600 Speaker 1: our fingertips, and the world has some serious problems that 613 00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: need to be fixed, and we have the chance to 614 00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: actually make an impact without making impacts. How about we 615 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:41,120 Speaker 1: do we do that? That sound good to you guys, Yeah, 616 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: all right, let's do that. Um So that's my perspective. 617 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,160 Speaker 1: I don't think Google is totally blameless. I don't think 618 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,759 Speaker 1: they're they're staffed by angels. I don't think you hear 619 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 1: the angelic choir as you walk through the door of 620 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,480 Speaker 1: Google yet because I don't think they've got the speakers working. 621 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: But I don't think that it's all, you know, a 622 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,600 Speaker 1: nefarious plan to get more money. It looks like you 623 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:08,839 Speaker 1: want to drive to Buffalo. Buffalo is where they make splobs. 624 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,960 Speaker 1: If they have Clippy as your navigator, I will jump 625 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,680 Speaker 1: out of the car. That's Microsoft though Google. Okay, looks 626 00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,600 Speaker 1: like you're trying to drive a car. It looks like 627 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:22,600 Speaker 1: you're going through the drive through. Would you like to 628 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,359 Speaker 1: know how to order a big Mac? Alright, With that 629 00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:27,680 Speaker 1: being said, let's wrap this up. If you guys have 630 00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:30,720 Speaker 1: any comments or questions about self driving cars or anything 631 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:32,840 Speaker 1: else along those lines, maybe you know, let us know 632 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:34,719 Speaker 1: what you think. Do you think a self driving car 633 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,080 Speaker 1: is a good idea? Do you think you would never 634 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: get in a self driving car? Or why would you 635 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,279 Speaker 1: be afraid of for your safety? Or is it just 636 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: something you don't think is interesting or good? Self flying cars? Hey, 637 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,920 Speaker 1: there's the Pentagon's working on that, a Humvy self flying car. 638 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,239 Speaker 1: I'm not even joking. You can look at up a 639 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,640 Speaker 1: self flying Humby is one of the projects the Pentagon's 640 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,480 Speaker 1: working on. Now go back and do a Google Sir 641 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: Johnas anyway, and you guys can do it too. Let 642 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:05,719 Speaker 1: us know what you think. You can pop on our 643 00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. The handle is text stuff h s W, 644 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,359 Speaker 1: or you can email us. That email address is tech 645 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com and Chris and 646 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:22,399 Speaker 1: I will talk to you again really soon. If you're 647 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:24,239 Speaker 1: a tech stuff and be sure to check us out 648 00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:28,040 Speaker 1: on Twitter text stuff hs WSR handle and you can 649 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:31,200 Speaker 1: also find us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash 650 00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:35,160 Speaker 1: tech stuff h s W. For more on this and 651 00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:38,440 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com 652 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 1: and be sure to check out the new tech stuff 653 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:47,560 Speaker 1: blog now on the how stuff Works homepage. Brought to 654 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,720 Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, 655 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:51,359 Speaker 1: Are you