I've never been a fabulous driver. Although I've only ever totaled one car (when I was 18 and scatterbrained and oh, man, I hope my Dad doesn't still remember that), I've almost had several accidents, largely in the last two years. I blame this entirely on the small human that sits in the middle section of the back seat of my Jeep.When he was an infant, I had my rear view mirror positioned toward his face so I could check to see if he was breathing and to periodically make sure his head wasn't lolling around in his lap region. As he's grown bigger, there's a whole new daunting set of challenges: cars that get lost under the seat, random howling dismay, hands that want a sippy, continued, distracting, nattering conversation and worst, his perpetual struggle to disengage himself from the seatbelt. I would be a much better driver if I could just sit in the passenger seat. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's not exactly science fiction.
General Motors is currently researching "driverless" cars: smart vehicles that will take you to your intended destination and park expertly in a parking spot, perhaps even pull the park brake. Ostensibly, you can sit in the passenger seat while all this goes down, searching for soggy crackers under the seat and missing dinky cars that have become lodged in between the seats.
The technology is a few years off -- car makers estimate 2018 as a launch date for driverless vehicles. In the meantime, there's still work to be done. Teams working on the driverless cars admit that one test vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another car pulled into a house's carport and parked itself without being told. I cannot even imagine what I would think if an empty car pulled up and parked itself sweetly in my driveway. Nonetheless, I'm keeping my eye on this one. It seems that the future is nearly here, and it might be crash proof.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
