Self-Driving Cars
The Car of the Future
Self-Driving Cars
Melanie Ballard
Per. 1/2
Self-driving cars. It might seem impossible, but in a couple of years, you could own one. You might ask “How is this possible?” Well, Google has been working on these cars for years. They’ve been building them, testing them, and re-building them until the car was perfect. Maybe not perfect, but close to that. Int this article you will learn how self-driving cars help our community progress in the technological field.
Google’s team of scientists and engineers have developed a car that doesn’t need a driver. It uses signals that bounce off the ground and other cars to drive itself. The car can adjust its speed according to traffic. It slows down when there are a lot of signals from cars around it and speeds up when there are not. Also, this car can sense other cars coming in the same way as it judges traffic. This feature allows the car to stop before a collision occurs.
Cars like this use the newest technology to function. For example, this vehicle has radars on the front, back, and sides of the car to survey its surroundings. Detailed maps programmed into the machine help it navigate streets and create routes to the passenger's destination. “This car [also] has an $80,000 cone-shaped laser mounted on its roof.” (Henn, 2012). This laser has similar purposes as the radars, catching signals from the road and other cars.
So, you might be thinking, “This is cool, but why is it necessary to society?” Well, self-driving cars are not only cool to look at and ride, but they help save many lives. Its advanced technology can see other cars coming and prevent them from crashing. If these cars become more common in the future, the number of car accidents will decrease greatly. Also, self-driving cars never get tired, drink, or text, so the number of accidents because of those factors decreased. Maybe, if these cars go on sale soon, and if a lot people start to buy them, humans won’t have to drive anymore.
Glossary
Words | Definitions
collision: the act of colliding; a coming violently into contact; crash:
radars: a device for determining the presence and location of an object by measuring the time it takes to echo a signal to the object and back.
survey: to determine the exact form, boundaries, and position of an area or object.