subject: Fairfax Mercedes SLS-Class dealers keep an eye on Google auto pilot cars [print this page] Fairfax Mercedes SLS-Class dealers keep an eye on Google auto pilot cars
The company recently announced that it has developed cars that can drive themselves in traffic and has even been testing them for months in - where else- California. Strange as it sounds, dealers of Fairfax Mercedes SLS-Class and many others will watch this development closely.
Must beyond Google Android, this is straight out of Buck Rogers, or maybe more like The Jetsons. One accident did occur in the testing: a test car was rear-ended at a stop light. In more than 140,000 miles of road tests, that's not a bad record. Especially when you consider the test car wasn't at fault.
These are not unmanned cars just turned loose on the road. That might be enough to cause some accidents. Each car is run with someone in the driver's seat who can react to a system failure by taking the wheel or hitting the brake pedal. An engineer sits in the passenger seat to monitor how the software is performing.
Your Mercedes dealer in Virginia believes this will not only be a breakthrough on the technology front, but that it could have many practical applications down the road. Google thinks the technology could cut auto-related deaths by half because computers can react better to emergency situations than humans in many cases.
I guess the challenge would be figuring out what those "cases" are. This isn't some whimsical program meant to allow you to sleep in while your minivan runs the carpool solo or to drive you home after a night on the town. Since a computer has instant reaction time and can sense issues all around that car, even our blind spots, there are many uses for the technology.
This is similar, in fact, to many of the safety features already being put in mostly luxury cars. Systems like accidence avoidance and brake assist, to name a couple. The computer could also drive the car more efficiently and save on fuel costs and consumption. Everybody cheer for that one!
Google says the biggest perk would be the elimination of wasted commute time. Drivers could do something productive or choose some entertainment during that time rather than sitting and biting their nails in traffic.
If this technology freaks you out a bit, just chill. It won't even be ready for use in the market for about eight years. Legal issues and more testing will take awhile and in the meantime we can check out all the new safety systems at our Fairfax Mercedes SLS-Class dealer.
Besides, this would require laws to be amended or re-written to accommodate computer drivers. I wonder if the computer loses its license if it gets too many moving violations. Wait, can it even get a ticket? Do you have to go back to driving yourself if your computer gets suspended?
The answers to these and many other questions can't be found at your Mercedes dealer Virginia, but a huge selection of Mercedes-Benz models with the latest available technology is in the showroom.
