/ News
GOOGLE’S Self-driving car prototypes are coming to public roads in austin
Our first glimpse of Google’s driverless cars came in 2012. Since then, Google has confined most of its test-drives of these vehicles to the roads outside its headquarters in Mountain View, California, and recently expanded tests to Austin, Texas (reports of other self-driving car tests by traditional automakers have surfaced in a few other spots around the globe).
Now the search company is bringing even more driverless options to the roads of Austin.
Google announced the arrival of their prototype autonomous vehicles at the Thinkery Museum in Austin. In addition to the Lexus RX450h that have been retrofitted with driverless tech, Google will bring over their pod-like prototype.
Google cites Austin as a test area on its self-driving car project website as well and says the test vehicles include "modified Lexus SUVs and new prototype vehicles".
The Google car prototype previously only saw use at the company's campus and throughout Mountain View. The self-driving car will come with a removable wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal in the event human drivers need take over.
It makes sense for Google to test self-driving cars in Austin for several reasons: not only is the city a vibrant tech and startup hub full of potential engineering talent, but Google is also installing its own experimental, gigabitFiber internet service in the area.
The Google Self-Driving Car Project was originally announced in 2010. While some of the company’s cars are consumer vehicles retrofitted with Google’s technology, others are custom made. A small, two-seater prototype unveiled last year is is more like a "room on wheels" than any conventional car — it eschews the steering wheel entirely.
Google Self-Driving Car Prototype
Altogether, Google’s reportedly completed more than 300,000 tests with no incidents of highway driving. The Lexus vehicles present in Austin however are limited to 25 mph, the Washington Post reports. The prototype pods could take the same precautions.
Google’s self-driving car project could be great for transportation and fuel efficiency, not to mention the added bonus of enabling people more time for relaxation or work while on the road. The implications are even more important for drivers who are seeing-impaired, physically impaired, or elderly. And with added pressure in the autonomous vehicle market coming fromTesla and potentially even Apple, competition could ensure driverless technology software won't steer us wrong.
Source: http://www.popsci.com/google-self-driving-car-driverless-vehicle
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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