How Self-Driving Cars Are Coming Sooner Than You Think
by Mike Kapsch, Investment U Research
Monday, August 13, 2012
Every so often, an invention comes along that completely changes the world.
For instance, the automobile and the airplane revolutionized how people travel.
And the computer and the internet allowed us to communicate and analyze data faster than anyone thought possible a few decades ago.
Fast-forward to today, and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is next in line to change the world in a way we’ve never seen before.
How’s it set to do so?
Self-driving cars.
The Future of Transportation
When Sebastian Thrun was 18, he lost his best friend to a car accident.
From that moment, he vowed to make cars better so people don’t need to die just driving from one place to another.
Today, he’s a Google VP and helped build Google’s driverless cars. In 2011, he spoke at a TED Conference and showed everyone just how revolutionary self-driving cars could be.
Even more promising, Google announced last week that of its dozen self-driving cars on the road, they’ve logged 300,000 miles and “there hasn’t been a single accident under computer control.”
Such data presents a strong case why self-driving cars may be necessary in today’s society.
The sad fact is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are nearly 11 million auto accidents each year in America. Of those wrecks, 35,000 of them are fatal.
That’s 96 deaths per day just because someone made a mistake driving a car.
Even worse, it’s estimated there are some two million fatal crashes around the world every year.
It’s scary to think about.
But this is where self-driving cars could help. Not to mention the fact that they could also be used to reduce traffic jams and aggressive driving, as well.
Google says driverless vehicles could make a sizeable impact on the auto market by 2020. However, Ford (NYSE: F) is looking to bring them to consumers even sooner than that.
By 2017, the company expects an autonomous-driving mode will be available in its vehicles. That’s just five years away.
What’s more, there are at least five other driverless car projects underway around the world.
A few include projects at Audi, Volkswagen (OTC: VLKAY.PK) and Volvo (OTC: VOLVY.PK).
However, you may not have to wait for car companies to profit from the next revolution in car technology.
Looking Behind the Scenes
It’s estimated that autonomous vehicles generate about 1GB of data per second.
Now multiply that number by the vast number of cars on the road, and you’re looking at a massive amount of data to process and analyze.
That’s why companies involved in the big data space are also poised to gain from driverless cars.
Already, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) helped Audi complete a TTS research car that completed a 12.4-mile climb of Pikes Peak in Colorado. It’ll almost certainly continue to be a major player the more driverless vehicles break into the marketplace.
Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) is another company that’s notably worked on driverless vehicle projects.
Nevada, California and Florida have all recently passed legislation that legalizes the use of autonomous vehicles. And Oklahoma and Hawaii are considering rules to legalize driverless cars as early as this year.
Momentum is moving quickly for self-driving vehicles. It’s going to be fun watching this revolutionary technology improve the driving experience.
Good Investing,
Mike
How Self-Driving Cars Are Coming Sooner Than You Think,Any investment contains risk. Please see our disclaimer.
4 Responses to “How Self-Driving Cars Are Coming Sooner Than You Think”
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Sebastian Thrun left Stanford because he is in debt to Stanford people with his involvment into Stanford student May Zhou’s death, he is not innocent in an unsuccessful plotted murder on me either and I have been cursed by powers from Sebastian Thrun’s side for many years. Sebastian Thrun dare not deny to the public his involvment into such fascism crimes till today and I am still waiting to see why he dare not
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Sebastian Thrun and Google’s Eric Schmidt mentioned here had lost their credibility when they got invovled into fascism crimes which had endangered human lives
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There is actually a war between fascism and anti-fascism, at this stage, fascism still prevails in our lives, Eric Schmidt, Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler are just front figures we could see in this fascism circle, there is a whole pack of fascists behind them
Eric, as we can see, starting from Gabriele Scheler’s atrocity case on Stanford campus back in 2004, many people, including Gabriele Scheler, Sebastian Thrun, you Eric Schmidt, and also your collegue in China Kaifu Lee, had made contributions to such fascism crimes which had cost human life of Stanford student May Zhou and crimes which had retaliated on victims and almost cost life of the victim as I am
… … and someone who had provided legal coverage for your fascism crimes, including a powerful officer from Santa Clara DA Office, namely ZZZ (and after ZZZ, another officer YYY), and the officer VVV who’s in charge of Gabriele Scheler’s case and who had further collateralled with your side(suspect Eric Schmidt, Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s side) to conspire and curse victims( Stanford, May Zhou, me) in every possible way since 2006 till today; and maybe include the officer RRR who insist on May Zhou’s death as a suicide or accident, even though I had clearly pointed out who’s involved in May Zhou’s murder case …
… … and someone who could provide political support for your fascism crimes, including top politician from the country of Germany whom we all know, and maybe include a retired top politician from UK as well, etc. and more and more to find out later …
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I believe, though some names missed out, all names mentioned in the above comment are part of this fascism circle
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Here is a real problem at this stage, who’s ruling May Zhou’s death as a suicide?
On 2012/02/21 StanfordDaily article “virtual-learning” [http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/02/21/virtual-learning/] in Comments part regarding to a murder case about a Stanford student May Zhou with which Eric Schmidt had threatened my life for sake of a stanford professor Sebastian Thrun and a criminal suspect named Gabriele Scheler during their fight with Stanford:
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@concernedNetCitizen,
About your ARROGANT question “If you think you have evidence (and i mean physical evidence) to the contrary why do you not take it to the police, or at least post what evidence you have (and I mean PHYSICAL evidence like fibres, DNA, fingerprints and the like).”
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I am not physically in America, so I’d rather communicate with the police officer who’s respnosible for May Zhou’s case via email to tell serious stuff, my contact [peter_vista@yahoo.com] , or we could discuss it right here on this board. Before the officer who’s responsible would contact me for a serious discussion, how could you know there is no such PHYSICAL evidence to say May Zhou’s death is definitely a murder but not a suicide? As a matter of fact, such PHYSICAL evidence already exists and that’s what I am going to tell.
The point at this time is, who is this officer who’s respnosible for May Zhou’s case, whom I should talk to? Could you have me connect with this officer? I have serious stuff to report
Meanwhile, why don’t you help us to figure out what’s the motivation behind May Zhou’s death?
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How long before my car needs its own data plan and will Google be capping my data bandwidth or will Verizon? These are logistics that still need some work, but bandwidth use could be lessened by establishing the use of BiModal Glideways so at least on highway travel you wouldn’t be forced to use the connectivity.
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