Driverless : intelligent cars and the road ahead
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-306) and index.

"Few inventions have changed life as much as the car. These large hunks of steel and horsepower are everywhere, so ubiquitous and deeply intertwined with our lives, jobs and families that we barely pay them any attention. The mundane car, however, is about to become the ultimate mobility device. Thanks to rapid advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, cars are poised to morph into the first mainstream autonomous robots that we will entrust with our lives, creating a cascade of social and economic change. - How do driverless cars work? - Why has it taken nearly 100 years to create a working driverless car? - What are the technological and social barriers? - How do roboticists create artificial perception and what is "Deep Learning"? - How will this technology change our lives, our businesses, and our cities? - What new opportunities lie ahead?"--Provided by publisher.

"In the year 2014, Google fired a shot heard all the way to Detroit. Google's newest driverless car had no steering wheel and no brakes. The message was clear: cars of the future will be born fully autonomous, with no human driver needed. In the coming decade, self-driving cars will hit the streets, rearranging established industries and reshaping cities, giving us new choices in where we live and how we work and play. In this book, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman offer readers insight into the risks and benefits of driverless cars and a lucid and engaging explanation of the enabling technology. Recent advances in software and robotics are toppling long-standing technological barriers that for decades have confined self-driving cars to the realm of fantasy. A new kind of artificial intelligence software called deep learning gives cars rapid and accurate visual perception. Human drivers will soon be able to relax and take their eyes off the road. When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel, driverless cars will offer billions of people all over the world a safer, cleaner, and more convenient mode of transportation. Although the technology is nearly ready, car companies and policy makers may not be. The authors make a compelling case for why government, industry, and consumers need to work together to make the development of driverless cars our society's next 'Apollo moment.'"--Jacket.