Worrying New Facts About Autonomous Cars Prove We'll Be In Control For Years To Come

When you hear that Google’s prototypes have clocked over 700,000 miles without incident, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the dawn of autonomous cars is upon us. But in reality, this technology has a long way to go.

The FBI recently voiced some concerns about the impact autonomous cars might have on law enforcement, but a fascinating report by MIT Technology Review outlines many more issues which Google will need to overcome if its driverless vehicles are to be feasible.

For starters, Google’s driverless car currently isn’t actually able to drive on 99 per cent of roads in the United States, as they haven’t yet been ‘mapped.’ And once all the mapping is done, it’d need to be updated constantly to allow for any changes to the carriageway. Another issue is traffic signals. The autonomous car’s cameras can detect the colour of signals, but these can be ‘blinded’ when direct sunlight is behind the traffic light.

The way the car scans the road is also relatively crude. MIT’s report states that the machine wouldn’t be able to tell if an obstacle was a crumpled piece of paper or a potentially hazardous rock, so it’d swerve for both. It can’t ‘see’ potholes, and due to the way it detects pedestrians, it wouldn’t stop if it was flagged down by a police officer at the side of the road.

Chris Urmson, the director of the Google car team, is confident all of these challenges (and others) can be overcome, but it will take some time.

So don’t worry, cars will need the squishy bit behind the wheel for a good few years yet.