Google Self-Driving Car Gets Into Accident, Humans (of course) Blamed

We read this article and wanted to share it with you: 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20090040-501465.html

This article, while funny, brings up a few points.  First off, who knew Google had self-driving cars?  We know they're all geniuses over there, but self-driving cars?!  Where's ours?  Go back to search engines and stuff.  We'll gladly take the cars off of your hands to work out the kinks.

More importantly, however, this article brings to mind the increasingly automated road that we are now driving on.  Robot cars that do your driving for you?  It may sound like something out of The Jetsons, but look at what technology is already on the road today.  Automated parallel parking has already been available in luxury cars for a handful of years now.  And now, high-end cars are touting their ability to brake for you if they sense an impending accident.  Cars can tell if you're drifting from your lane and notify you, or let you know if there is another vehicle in your blind spot.  Adaptive Cruise Control can keep pace with the car in front of you.  With the amount of sensors and features on some cars nowadays, it's not hard to imagine a near-future with self driving cars.

So this got us thinking.  What do you see as the future for automation in vehicles?  Some people imagine a future where we don't even own specific vehicles.  The transportation process is entirely automated and vehicles can just come and go as you please to pick you up.  For us, that sounds a bit too utopian.  America will never let go of its hotrod soul.  Driving is just too darn fun.  And as long as there are people who love to drive, there will be people behind the wheel of cars on the road, even if they do have to share it with the occasional robo-butler.  Do you agree?