Unit6-Part2-Reading

Who's driving that car?

One day, you may be sitting in the driver's seat of your car and surfing the internet, texting your friends,

or just enjoying the scenery outside as the car drives or parks itself.

This will be possible with the autonomous or robotic car technology developed by research organizations and major car makers.

These include Google, Mercedes -Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Volvo, etc.,

which have already developed robotic cars as prototypes for demonstrations.

Google, in fact, began its driverless car project in 2010 and has been carrying out test drives with its fleet of 12 driverless cars.

These cars navigate roads with their radar -like equipment.

So far, they have driven 500 ,000 kilometers.

There has been only one accident, but it was caused by the driver of a car behind the Google test car.

The driverless or self -driving cars are run on autopilot and controlled by a computer system,

which makes driving safer, easier, and more efficient.

Engineers say the driverless cars are safer than the ones driven by human drivers because computers react more quickly than humans.

Car makers are planning to have these models ready for sale by 2020.

However, these cars must always have a person behind the wheel to make sure the software that steers the cars working.

And when there is a problem, the person can immediately take over the driving.

The auto software determines the speed limit, traffic patterns, and roadmaps.

Radar, lasers, and video cameras help to avoid other cars and pedestrians.