The Self-Driving Car

Can't wait to get me one of those! :)

Reshared post from +Larry Page

I loved Wired's article on self driving cars. This technology has been a passion of mine for years because it will help save lives, help lots of people who have difficulty driving, and reduce congestion on our roads. In 2006, Stanford's driverless car (named Stanley!) won a DARPA challenge, and $2M in prize money, when it successfully drove solo for hours through the desert. I was lucky enough to watch that race, and not the previous year, where none of the cars had been able to finish — quite a fast technological improvement. Fast forward to today — Google's self-driving cars have now clocked up over 200K miles, and they can easily navigate the freeway in rush hour at highway speeds. According to the article nearly 370,000 people lost their lives on American roads between 2001 and 2009–93% due to human error. Using technology to improve safety on our roads will make the world a better place.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/ff_autonomouscars/all/1

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» Let the Robot Drive: The Autonomous Car of the Future Is Here
Robotic vehicles, from Google to Mercedes, have arrived. So what form and purpose will these cars have when we finally let go of the wheel?

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“Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I’ve ever written!”

“Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I’ve ever written!”

That's what +Paulo Coelho writes in response to the current SOPA controversy. And he really means it, too!

However, I have a strong feeling that his publishers – especially HarperCollins – might not share his opinion completely ;)

/via +Jeff Jarvis

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My thoughts on S.O.P.A. — Paulo Coelho's Blog
IN THE former Soviet Union, in the late 1950s and 60s, many books that questioned the political system began to be circulated privately in mimeographed form. Their authors never earned a penny in roya…

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Wort zum Feiertag

"Zwischen Katholizismus und Kapitalismus gibt's ja einige Parallellen. Beides ist eher kompliziert, aber das Wichtigste ist in beiden Fällen der Glaube. Das begünstigt auch den Austausch zwischen diesen beiden Gruppen. Weil natürlich tut sich jemand, der gewohnt ist zu glauben, dass eine Hostie gleichzeitig ein Mensch ist, der gleichzeitig ein Gott ist, der gleichzeitig sein eigener Vater und eine Taube ist, relativ leichter auch zu glauben, dass die Option auf ein Derivat einer Kursrisikoschwankungsversicherung eines Immobilientermingeschäftes eine sichere Investition ist."

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ORF TVthek: Wir Staatskünstler – 08.12.2011 23:00 Uhr
Wir Staatskünstler: Wir Staatskünstler – Thomas Maurer, Robert Palfrader und Florian Scheuba gehen in „Wir Staatskünstler“ wieder ihren Lieblingsbeschäftigungen und Aufgaben als offizielle Staatsküns…

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