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Writer's pictureRick Titus

Look Ma, NO DRIVER!

DID YOU KNOW:

...That for some time now, the State of Nevada has allowed the testing of autonomous vehicles on city streets and highways? These vehicles have always been easy to spot as they have huge antennas on the roof and large signs on the doors. They always had a safety driver in them and always obey traffic laws. Today however, was the first time we witnessed a “fully autonomous” vehicles running down the freeway and I must tell you...it’s a bit freaky to see NOBODY in the vehicle anywhere. No super large antenna on the roof, a fairly small sign on the door and of course obeying the speed limit: all good, but I certainly didn’t expect to find no human driver onboard as these vehicles are monitored from an office located somewhere Downtown. Clearly this means the future is here.

...That several years ago, we were testing a vehicle on Ford’s Romeo Proving Grounds in Northern Michigan? The test subject was “High Performance” in nature and we were told not to come speeding up on the autonomous vehicles that were testing at several locations on the track, as it would be inclined to “scare” them and force them to drive off the road. Wow, not good. We remained mindful of that and managed to not cause any self-driving vehicle accidents. Based on today's experience, they’ve solved that issue though to be fair, we passed the antonymous vehicle at a great difference in speed.

...That the question has come up: How will drivers express any form of “road rage” to autonomous vehicles? Don’t know, perhaps autonomous vehicles might go a long way of eliminating road rage.

...That for several years, the VW Beetle came with a rope pull starter just in case the starter or battery failed to start the car? The rope would wind around the generator pulley and lock into a notch like a lawnmower or an old outboard engine.

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