Depending on your outlook, US Patent No.: US 8,078,349 B1 could be the best or worst thing ever. US 8,078,349 B1 you see is Google's patent for
The abstract reads: "Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able to know its exact position. Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference indicator to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction, it can operate in autonomous mode."
Google envisions this landing strip as being anything from a tradition parking spot to a simple marking on a wall or sign. The driver shows up, stops, turns things over to the computer, tells it where to go and, hopefully, arrives safely.
An interesting part of this is that a driver requiring a vehicle could simply snap a photo of the corresponding QR code on a roadway and an autonomous vehicle could be delivered to that exact spot.
Like it or not, here they come...
throwback says:
10:49 AM, 12/16/11
Another sign of the apocalypse.
tempesting says:
07:50 PM, 12/16/11
Here comes The Minority Report.
gts09 says:
06:01 AM, 12/17/11
so, patents are that simple to submit? or is there a lot more to the story than this article shows?
nwng says:
07:24 AM, 12/19/11
darn, I better hurry up and submit my patent for the warp drive engine