WEBVTT - Robot, You Can Drive My Car 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.720 Forward Thinking. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.959 The podcast said looks at the future and says, you 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.160 might think I'm delirious the way I run you down. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.560 I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren voc and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.680 And we're revisiting a topic we've covered in a previous 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:31.720 couple of episodes, affard thinking. We're revisiting autonomous cars. Self 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.080 driving cars, Yeah, because we we had had two whole 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.000 episodes about them. We recommend listening to them there in 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.120 our audio archives. But but there are a lot of 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.320 other things that we still wanted to talk about, and 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.280 also some interesting new information that has arisen. Yeah, And 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.159 part of that was just kind of talking about the 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.280 history of self driving cars and developing them, because we 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.360 didn't really talk about in those previous episodes. And you know, 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.000 there was some work that was done as early as 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.480 the nineteen seventies in trying to create self driving or 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.680 autonomy as cars, and some of that technology has made 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.880 its way into vehicles. Things like cruise control is a 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.320 very simple manifestation, but we also have things like collision detection, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.040 parking assistance, all this other kind of technology that has 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.320 been incorporated into various models of cars over the last 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.800 few years. And we're seeing, you know, year over year, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.920 cars are getting more and more of these autonomous features 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.800 built into them. We haven't quite reached the point where 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.160 you can go and buy a truly autonomous car off 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.520 the lot and have it drive you home. But we're 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.399 getting there. Uh, the question is how fast are we 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.440 going to get there? But we'll kind of address that 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.560 a little bit later. To look at the true kind 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.760 of history of the modern self driving car, you gotta 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.399 look at UM a mysterious organization and part of the 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:51.120 Department of Defense. Yeah, so, uh, Department of Defense. Yeah, 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.680 United States Department of Defense has the Defense Advanced Research 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.320 Projects Agency or DARPA. DARPA is actually responsible for a 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.440 lot of technology that we use today. So they're building transformers. 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.240 Is that it? Actually here's the funny thing. Here's the 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.520 funny thing. They are working on humanoid robots right now. 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.600 That's the latest challenge. But the the challenges we're talking 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.760 about our autonomous cars that were called robots, but don't 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.560 transform into humanoid robots. They are not in disguise. They're 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.000 just robots in car form. So so they're like half 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.720 of a transformer, Yes, the transformer, the boring half, and 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.440 and a lot of this is hypothetically for say, disaster 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:37.000 relief work, stuff like that, um military purposes. Specifically, it 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.400 says they like they like talking about the disaster relief 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.160 for ye. Well that's the that's the cheery way of 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.840 putting it. Yeah, because they The specific mission of DARPA, 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.680 according to the website is darpast mission is to maintain 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.560 the technological superiority of the U. S Military and prevent 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.240 technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.560 high payoff research, bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.119 their military use. Not quite as fuzzy and warm as 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:06.640 they We want to to improve disaster relief response. But 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.760 I mean it's honest. So, but darp has been been 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.480 responsible for technology that has given us the opportunity to 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.640 have a job because it was DARPA that funded the 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.520 ARPA net, which is the predecessor to the Internet. So 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.120 do you guys know when, uh, when DARPA got started, 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.240 Like what what event precipitated the founding of DARPA. Can 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.600 you can you take a wild guess of what event 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.160 in history would have inspired the United States to launch 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:42.279 a research and development organization to try and maintain technological superiority. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.920 I'm gonna say either, um, either sput Nick or when 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.920 they canceled Happy Days. You were right the first times Sputnik. Uh. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.680 Sput Nick was in fact the event that inspired the 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.120 United States to form DARPA. So, of course, Sputnik was 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.840 when the Soviet Union launched a saddle that orbited the 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.240 Earth and went beep a few times. Terrifying. Yeah, No, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.080 Sputnik two is what was terrifying, because that had the 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:11.960 dog in it, like poor La who suffocated pretty quickly 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:17.120 in that because it failures in the Sputnik two. So darnia. Yeah, 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.359 getting back to the cheerfulness, DARPA ended up funding lots 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.320 of different projects, including what would become the Internet, or 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.720 at least the predecessor to the Internet, I should be clear. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.200 And then also in two thousand four decided to get 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.200 into the automated car business. In a way, they actually 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.919 submitted a challenge to the world, or really I should 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.919 say to the United States. Um, And they said that 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.719 the purpose of the DARPA Grand Challenge two thousand four, 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:45.719 which was the first year they held. It is to 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.919 leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.000 technologies that can be applied to military requirements. UH, So 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.960 we always get a military bit at the end. So UH. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.800 In that challenge, they had I think twenty five groups. Uh. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.800 And the challenge specifically involved a route from Los Angeles 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.640 to Las Vegas, which is three hundred miles. Is a 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.120 three hundred mile course that these cars were expected to 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.440 UH to go on, and it included both on road 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.320 and off road sections. They had cleared the on road 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.719 sections of traffic so these robotic cars wouldn't be careening 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.920 into pedestrians and and and regular traffic. It wasn't onlike 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.919 Hollywood Boulevard or anything like that. The best probably yeah, no, 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:32.720 I've been on Hollywood Boulevard. That is for the best. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.599 A series of way points to find the routes, and 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.160 the vehicles were to follow those way points, and there 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.039 were also some checkpoints where the teams were allowed to 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.520 stand by in order to do quick repairs or refuel 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:49.000 their vehicles before the vehicle would continue on. However, every 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.280 single vehicle had to be unmanned and autonomous, which meant 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.280 you could not control it by remote control. It had 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.880 to be moving on its own and the winning team 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.440 would be the first one or the one to navigate 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.360 that route in the shortest amount of time and they 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.000 would win one million dollars. So among those twenty five 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.720 teams were some racing teams UH. There was also cal 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.880 Tech and Virginia Tech were in there. There was even 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.159 a high school team, the Palos Verdes High School Racing Team, 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.800 and other teams involved robot enthusiasts and other companies and 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:28.400 research facilities. So who won nobody none. None of the 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.919 vehicles were able to to go across that three hundred 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.679 mile routes successfully within the timeframe. So then they held 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.200 another Grand Challenge in two thousand five. It was a 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:44.360 little more um conservative, I would say. Instead of three 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.960 hundred miles, it was a hundred thirty one point two 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.880 miles long and UH it was so that made it 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.080 less than half as long as the two thousand four challenge. UM. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.719 They had five teams completed UH and Stanford went away 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:00.040 with the first prize, winning two million dollars. Some of 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.360 the other teams included a couple of teams from Carnegie 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.360 Melon and a team from Princeton UH, but the Stanford 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.520 team completed the challenge in six hours fifty three minutes. UH. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:15.320 Their car relied on lasers, optical cameras, and radar for 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.040 environmental perception, and the data gathered by sensors was mapped 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.040 against a drive ability map that was used to set 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.000 the direction and speed of the vehicle. And all the 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.840 technical papers for all the teams, all of that is 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.880 available on an archive site at DARPA will try and 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:32.680 link that in social so that you guys can see 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.360 Because you can actually go and read their technical papers 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.760 and see their approach to building an autonomous vehicle. It's 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.960 really fascinating stuff, um, particularly if you're an engineer and 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.200 you can understand all the terms. Even for me, where 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.800 I could understand maybe twenty of them, I was really 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.320 I was really excited to read them. And then you 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.119 finally had the Urban Challenge, which was in two thousand seven. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.280 So the Urban challenge was stepping up the difficulty from 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.680 the two thousand five challenge. It wasn't as long, but 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.280 it was in an urban environment, meaning they were going 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.080 to create traffic patterns. They had people driving actual cars 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.680 driving around to to make that more like an actual 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.440 town setting. Uh. They used an old uh no longer 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.080 in use Air Force base to create their little fake 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.920 town and and have the three various courses. They had 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.800 a national qualifying event. Uh. There were I think eighty 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.840 nine teams that had applied to be part of this. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.080 Thirty five were selected to participate in the National Qualifying Event, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.240 which took place over eight days, had three test areas. 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.160 One course was one where vehicles had to merge into 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.120 and out of two way traffic in a circulating course. 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:42.800 And out of all the test days, only one vehicle 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.360 was ever struck by a robotic car. And in my 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.240 notes I said for getting fresh, So apparently a robot 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.280 car just Actually, there's some funny stories from this, I'll 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.720 tell you in a second. The second course tested cars 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.240 ability to stay within a lane on a meandering road. 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.200 So if the road has lots of turns and curves 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.520 in it, can the car actually maintain the right lane? Uh, 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.040 in order for it to not very into oncoming traffic? 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.680 Well ideally yes. Yeah, we'll have a lot more to 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.800 say about that in a minute too. They also had 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.760 to go through a a narrow street where they had 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.440 parallel parked cars on either side of the street, and 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.040 that section was called the Gauntlet, And the last part 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.600 of that test was the robot had to locate and 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.280 park in an assigned parking space and then pull back 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.640 out and move on to the third course, which was 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.960 a series of four way intersections that the robot had 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.640 to negotiate, so the rolways had to detect traffic and 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.160 obey the rules of the road. So you know, when 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.320 you come up to a four way stop, who gets 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.240 to go through first? It all depends upon when you 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.440 arrived at the four way stop and your position in 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.120 relation to the other drivers. And also they put in 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.120 roadblocks on the course and the robots had to identify 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.920 the roadblock, make a U turn, and then plan some 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.920 different Yeah. Yeah, it had to still get to its 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.440 to its end location. Um. And what was interesting was 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.440 that eleven teams went on to the final challenge. That 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.280 challenge required the robots to visit specific checkpoints and the 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.160 teams were not notified of the checkpoint locations until five 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.080 minutes before the launch, so they had a map of 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.880 the entire space, like they knew what the digital file 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.920 that had all the map of the fake town, but 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:20.440 they didn't know where the checkpoints we're going to be 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.240 on that map until five minutes before they were pulling 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.760 out the star the route and exactly they had to 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.040 do it right there in real time. The course also 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.720 had thirty vehicles with drivers moving through the course during 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.800 the test, so you had real live drivers on the 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.240 course at the same time, and about half the vehicles 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:40.600 were removed from the course for various errors. And here's 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.319 the fun part. One of the errors was the Terra 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.320 Max vehicle that nearly drove into the old Commissary building 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.920 on the Air Force space, so they were able to 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.320 stop it just before it drove into a building. Um. 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:57.559 And also the team you you see f car spontaneously 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.679 decided to park at a car port and just take 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.439 a break, just pulled into a car poard and stopped, 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:05.840 just like y'all, I give up, I am done with 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:11.160 this test. They eventually disqualified it. Cornell and uh Cornell 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.839 and M I. T S vehicles gently bumped into each other. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.960 I like to say they were trading paint. They were 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.360 trying to share a lane together, but they were allowed 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.840 to continue the course once they were separated and totally 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.320 given a little time out. UH. And then first place 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.520 on that went to a team called Tartan Racing out 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.520 of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the second place went to Stanford again. UH. 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:35.040 First prize was two million dollars again. So ultimately six 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.640 teams finished the challenge that year, which showed that even 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.680 though they wrapped up the difficulty, they still had six 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.880 teams from across the United States complete that course, which 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.040 really showed the development of technology in the span of 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.280 two years, because we remember in two thousand four no 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.360 one finished, well three years really, because it was two 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.000 thousand seven when they did Urban Challenge, right, And of 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.559 course at this point in two thousand seven, many cars, 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:02.360 if not most cars, had on board computers. We're controlling 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.480 a lot of different systems. It was mostly monitoring, but yeah, 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.920 there was some control as well. But of course after 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:12.200 these challenges, some tech companies a little curious. Are you 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:18.120 talking about a company that rhymes with schmoogle? Um? I 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.720 might be Okay, I remember when this news broke because 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.520 I have a friend who works at Google who told 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.160 me that he didn't tell me about the car. He 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.480 just told me. It's like there's something that's so cool 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.200 going on at Google, and I can't wait for it 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.720 to become public because you're gonna flip out. And it 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.440 took about half a year before the news became public 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.960 from when he told me, and sure enough I flipped out. 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.360 They actually recruited from the challenges they did. In fact, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.000 the guy who is the project leader UM is in 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.840 fact a one of the members of the Stanford team 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:55.000 that won Sebastian. He won that two thousand and five challenge, 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.720 so he was part of the the winning team back then. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.760 And uh, and there are a few others who also 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.400 are working with Google that participated in the Grand Challenge, 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.079 and other people who participated in the Grand Challenge are 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.000 working for specific car companies, so not just Google. Google 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.680 was not the only one to pull talent from this group. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.079 There are other car companies that that did as well, right, 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.480 But so Google got to work um decking out some 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.600 other proprietary vehicles. They weren't creating their own car from scratch. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:28.400 That's one thing to make clear. Yeah, the first one 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.040 that I remember being released to the public, or the 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.680 information that's released to the public, was a Toyota Prius actually, 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.320 but they also they've used Lexus, Yes they have, which 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.480 is also a Toyota company. Yeah, but so they in 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.560 two thousand and ten, I believe it was, they went 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.600 public with r Yeah, they have been working on it 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.199 for like a year, but that was when we found 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.760 out about it. Yeah, there was a big Google blog 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.520 post where they announced that, look, you know where there 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.960 are all these traffic accidents, um cars, they're not driving efficiently, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.040 and people are spending way too much time behind the wheel. 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.000 We can solve all three of these problems at once 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.880 if we create self driving cars, right, just take people 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.520 out of the equation and everything goes better because removing 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.319 quote the loose nut between the gas pedal and the 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.400 steering wheel. That's my favorite. That's my favorite joke. Mechanics. Yeah, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:22.480 as as we talked about in the previous episodes, the 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.520 National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration estimates that more than 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.160 road crashes are due to human error. Yeah, I've seen 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:35.400 I've seen figures everywhere between that that's huge. Like if 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.960 you could remove that then you would significantly decrease the 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.520 number of injuries and deaths, perhaps terribly upset the car 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.600 insurance industry, but which you know, that's okay. Uh. You 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.600 also have efficiency to consider. Machine drivers are going to 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.480 be way more efficient than human drivers because they have 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.160 like established rules that govern when they gas and break, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.720 especially once you set up a network of these things 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.400 and these at times cars start working together to clear 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.440 out traffic exactly. Yeah. In two thousand twelve UM and 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:15.480 I Trip Police study, they they estimated that they think 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.960 a highway filled entirely with autonomous cars instead of with 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.760 human driven cars, can increase the capacity of that highway 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.120 five times. Um. Yeah. Now, now we just have to 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.680 get to the point where we don't need jobs anymore, 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.360 and then we'll just stay at home in our cars 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.880 will drive everywhere for us for no reason. Perfect. Uh. Yeah, 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.120 you know what's interesting to me? Do you know what 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.080 they You know what the Google car uses as a 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.200 primary sensor, right? Is it light ar? Yeah? Have you 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.640 heard about this? Okay, So imagine the lasers l sixty 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.480 four lasers. That's not radar for detecting lies, Um, L 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.560 I D A R. Yes, it's it's sixty four lasers 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.760 all right. So imagine that you've got a pack of 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.640 sixty four lasers and a turret top of a car, 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.920 and that tour. It rotates at six centered revolutions per minute. 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.720 And what's doing is it's just constantly scanning its environment 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.360 so that it can detect minute changes as as it's 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.640 traveling through a space, so it knows not only what 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.880 stationary objects are nearby, it can track when things are 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:23.160 moving and then be able to plot against that. UM. Now, granted, 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.080 I think I think in every case that I've read, 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.640 Google only allows people who are using these cars to 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.680 operate them on highways. Once they pull off onto surface streets, 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.720 it has to go under manual control by Google's policy. UM. 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.040 And of course these are not cars that are allowed 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.560 outside of the realms of Google. But that is changing. Yeah, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.720 I mean, what's what's interesting is that, you know, it 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.520 was two thousand ten when Google unveiled this, and there 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.280 weren't really any laws on the books that would allow 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.080 for autonomous cars. In fact, most of the laws in 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.680 the world specify that you have to have a driver 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.680 behind the wheel in control of the vehicle at all times. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.440 But actually that is now changing, and in a few 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.639 places in the United States it's already changed. Right in California, Nevada, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.840 and Florida, there have been laws passed that specifically allow 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.840 for the testing of autonomous cars. Nevada was the first 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.240 in in two thousand eleven, they passed Assembly Buill number 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.040 five eleven, And what that basically did was it allowed 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.800 the state Department of Transportation to revise their laws to 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.680 accommodate for autonomous cars. Now, in this case, there's still 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.600 has to be a driver behind the wheel, but the 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:38.399 driver does not have to be in control of the 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.919 vehicle at all times. Yeah. Um. And so Nevada actually 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.600 followed through with that and in two thousand twelve they 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.440 officially approved a license for autonomous cars. Yes, I saw 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.399 that May of two thousand twelve. I know that Florida, 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:54.959 Florida being one of the other states that allowed for 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:59.560 autonomous car testing. This is I honestly don't know the 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:01.680 reasoning behind this. I'm just gonna throw it out there 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.719 and see if you guys think it's realistic. Do you 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.720 think that it's possibly because of the aged population in 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.320 Florida that this was something that Florida was interested in. Well, 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.800 I don't know, but I mean I've read that a 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.120 lot of the reasoning behind autonomous cars is giving more 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.680 mobility to people, say who like don't see as well 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.000 as they used to, um, but would still like to 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.760 be able to have some independent movement around the city. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.280 I would guess that that Disney might have something to 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.040 say about that as well. Automos cars are legal in 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.760 California and Florida. Those are the two places where Disney 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.200 parks are in the United States. So um, Google is 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.960 also in California. So collusion is a little is a little, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.920 a little on the flimsy side. Uh. So that's where 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.000 it is so far. I believe d C also, I 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.040 think has been working on this, but now um, there 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.840 are a bunch of states that are starting to considering it. Yeah, 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.840 and the federal government is kind of saying you know, 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.719 of course, in the United States, for those who are 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.560 not in the United States, we have state governments and 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.760 we have the federal government. The federal government has been 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:04.800 on record as saying, guys, you might want to slow 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.960 down a little bit before you start passing all this 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:11.040 legislation on the state by state basis, simply because we 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.320 don't have enough data here to be able to legislate responsibly. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.960 Whereas the technology companies are saying, look, all the data 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.520 that's coming back is showing that this is way safer 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.919 than the alternative. So right, a report published by the 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.160 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which which is a nonprofit 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.560 although it is funded by the American auto industry um 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.520 and said that collision warning and breaking systems are already 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.399 helping drivers avoid accidents. Um that that statistically, if you 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:41.000 were drive, if you are in a car that has 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.680 these systems, you are less likely to be in an accident. Yeah. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.280 And also it's good to keep in mind that typically 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.119 these laws, uh, they sort of unveil these new motor 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.240 rights in different stages, so they're opened on private roads 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.199 before they are on public roads, right, Um. And I 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.360 guess that's to allow for testing. And and it's it's 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.800 not just Google Old that's getting into this game. Actually, 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.520 there are quite a few companies that are all investing 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:11.879 in their own automated car technology. Toyota is another one, 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:17.720 BMW four GM, Volvo, Audi, Mercedes, Benz, Nissan, Right, right, Toyota. Yeah, 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.200 all of these have at least in the testing stages 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:22.639 various forms of these things, and a lot of them 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.359 are saying that within the next ten years they're going 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.439 to be rolling out, if not fully automated cars at 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:32.119 least um auto assist cars with more, because again, this 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.359 may be one of those things where because of the 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.840 legislative barriers, there may be some time that we'll have 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:42.000 to wait to see automated cars being available for the 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.280 average consumer. I'm sure they'll be prohibitively expensive for most 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.400 people when they first when they first hit the roads 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.840 as well, But I think it's gonna be. I think 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.080 it's gonna be a few years just because of the 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.800 legislative side. But we will still benefit from that technology 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:01.120 in other ways, with more more advanced cry prevention systems, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.040 parking assistance, that kind of stuff. Yeah, speaking to the price, 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.200 I believe right now an autonomous car is running about 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.560 a hundred and fifty thou dollars. Yea. I saw one 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.560 guy say that that there's always the possibility that before 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:19.560 we see fully autonomous cars rolling off the manufacturing plants 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:21.800 out of all these these companies, that we may see 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.119 aftermarket kits where you can convert a car over to 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.359 an autonomous vehicle. But even that would be in the 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.560 hundred dozen dollar range, so still not cheap. Sure, Yeah, 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.240 And you know the kinds of companies that are putting 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.520 out things that you can buy right now that are 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.080 partially autonomous are like Mercedes Benz, which has a radar 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.679 and stereoscopic cameras that will help you determine, you know, 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:46.880 help your car determine the speed of traffic around you 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.800 and also your position within a lane and keep you 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.600 there up to speeds of about eighteen miles per hour. Yeah, 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.680 and I think, uh GM, they've said that they're they're 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.680 going to have partially autonomous cadillacs by well, we'll see. 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:03.040 That's really close. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and partially autonomous. I 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:05.359 mean that's vague enough where you could argue that there 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:07.479