Sergey Brin has always been passionate about Google’s project on self-driven cars, ever since Google’s founder Larry Page convinced artificial intelligence researcher in Stanford, Sebastian Thrun to spearhead their new project in 2007. Brin loves driving and owns one of the most coveted Tesla’s brand new SUVs. But he is excited about the commercial large scale launch of fully autonomous vehicles.
At a panel held by Google early this week about Google’s project on self-driven cards, Brin was asked by one of the journalists about the effects the autonomous cars could have on the relation a driver has with his car. He was particularly stoic about the fact that this driverless car would have adverse effects on a car lover. Brin responded brilliantly to the open question by addressing a few hard facts about why autonomous cars are necessary for the near future, even though people have an intimate relation to their cars. He further went on to add that the situation where a person loves driving through curves and highways are minuscule in percentage, and maximum travelers face traffic and stoplights, making it a dull and cumbersome journey.
Brin emphasized that safety is one of the primary concerns of Google while developing autonomous cars. The new CEO of the self-driven car program of Google stated that 1.2 million people die in car accidents annually, and 33,000 of them are from the United States alone. He also equated the staggering number with five Boeing 737 aircrafts crashing every week to put things into perspective. As he claims, Google’s cars are a lot safer and smarter than an average driver on the road.
Brin argued that the love for driving cars is not reason enough to impede development to improve the safety of passengers and that a large number of people will indeed prefer self-driven cars for their daily commute, as it is much safer and less of a headache. Google does not plan on manufacturing self-driven cars to sell them, although they have a fleet of their own. Their plan of action is to market the technology behind the autonomous cars and integrate them with cars from major manufacturers across the world. Brin also said that he can visualize cars in future featuring dual modes of autonomous and manual control.