Google self-driving car has no steering wheel or brake

If you're uneasy at the idea of riding in a vehicle that drives itself, just wait till you see Google's new car. It has no gas pedal, no brake and no steering wheel. Google has been demonstrating its driverless technology for several years by retrofitting Toyotas, Lexuses and other cars with cameras and sensors. "They won't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal ... because they don't need them," Google said Tuesday in a blog post introducing the unnamed electric vehicles. Unlike previous models, these cars won't have human drivers monitoring them at all times. The cars' speed for now has been capped at 25 mph, allowing engineers to minimize the risk of crashes during testing. Inside, the spartan cars have few dashboard controls, no glove box and no stereo. "We've designed for learning, not luxury, so we're light on creature comforts," Google said. The company plans to build about 100 prototype vehicles and begin testing them later this summer.

The tech trends that will change the world That said, there are a few undeniable trends. Making sense of the numbers Shelly Palmer. According to every credible source we can find, there are almost 3 billion people connected to the public internet right now; by 2020 the number will approach 4 billion. So how do you sort it out? I use three laws to help me understand the rate of change: Moore's Law, the Law of Accelerating Returns, and Metcalfe's Law. This was true for a while, but now, because of the Law of Accelerating Returns (which states that the rate of technological change is accelerating exponentially) we know that this doubling of computing power happens much faster than that. 1) Technology is changing at a faster and faster pace. 2) The more people are connected, the more powerful the network becomes. Connectivity: everything that can be connected, will be connected Information overload: data is more powerful in the presence of other data Security and privacy: everything that can be hacked, will be hacked What's next? Read

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