Written December, 2012
In three states – Nevada, Florida, and California – it is now legal for Google to operate its driverless cars. A human in the vehicle is still required, but not at the controls. Google’s goal is to create a fully automated vehicle that is safer and more effective than a human-operated vehicle and they plan to marry this idea with the concept of the Zipcar, fleets of automobiles shared by a group of users on an as-needed basis, paying annual fees, per-mileage charges, and insurance costs. The driverless Zipcar will transform not just the way we travel, but also the entire urban/suburban landscape, and our social and economic structures.
The ethics of automation and equality of access for people of different income levels are just a taste of the difficult ethical, legal, and policy questions we will need to address.
Driverless cars
What We’re Driving At (Google Official Blog)
The 12 Most Important Questions About Self-Driving Cars(Popular Mechanics)
Let the Robot Drive: The Autonomous Car of the Future Is Here(Wired)
How Driverless Cars Will Work? (How Stuff Works)
The Economic Explains: How Does a Self-Driving Car Work? (The Economist)
How Google’s Self-Driving Car Works (IEEE Spectrum)
TED talk: Google’s Driverless Car (TED)
Zipcars
Zipcar – About Us (Zipcar)
Sharing Isn’t Always Caring: Why Don’t Consumers Take Care of Their Zipcars? (Science Daily)
The Awkward Ethics of Sharing (The Atlantic)
What Will Happen to Car Sharing Now the ZipCar is Part of Avis?(Green Conduct)
The ethics of driverless cars
Smart Robots, Driverless Cars Work – But They Bring Ethical Issues Too (The Guardian)
The Ethics of Autonomous Cars (The Atlantic)
The Ethics of Saving Lives With Autonomous Cars Are Far Murkier Than You Think (Wired)
Data Shows Google’s Robot Cars Are Smoother, Safer Drivers Than You or I (MIT Tech Review)
Robot ethics: Morals and the Machine (The Economist)
Google’s Driver-less Car and Morality (The New Yorker)
Collision In the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works (The New York Times)
Videos
A look inside Google’s “Driverless Car”
CNN test-drives Googles “self-driving car”
Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan
And for those of you who are worried: Police: Blind Driver’s Trip in Google’s Self-Driving Car Was Legal