Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead (MIT Press)

Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead (MIT Press)

<p><b>“Smart, wide-ranging, [and] nontechnical.”<br /><i>—Los Angeles Times</i></b></p><p><b>“Anyone who wants to understand what's coming must read this fascinating book.” <br />—Martin Ford, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Rise of the Robots</i></b></p><p>In the year 2014, Google fired a shot heard all the way to Detroit. Google’s newest driverless car had no steering wheel and no brakes. The message was clear: cars of the future will be born fully autonomous, with no human driver needed. In the coming decade, self-driving cars will hit the streets, rearranging established industries and reshaping cities, giving us new choices in where we live and how we work and play. </p><p>In this book, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman offer readers insight into the risks and benefits of driverless cars and a lucid and engaging explanation of the enabling technology. Recent advances in software and robotics are toppling long-standing technological barriers that for decades have confined self-driving cars to the realm of fantasy. A new kind of artificial intelligence software called deep learning gives cars rapid and accurate visual perception. Human drivers can relax and take their eyes off the road. </p><p>When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel, driverless cars will offer billions of people all over the world a safer, cleaner, and more convenient mode of transportation. Although the technology is nearly ready, car companies and policy makers may not be. The authors make a compelling case for why government, industry, and consumers need to work together to make the development of driverless cars our society’s next “Apollo moment.” </p><br />