Category Archives: Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars

We Review Google Patents So You Don’t Have To

Posted on September 1, 2014 by

The latest self-driving car patent from Google dropped this week. This one describes a “Method to Detect Nearby Aggressive Drivers and Adjust Driving Modes,” and it pretty much does exactly what it says. And with all it’s talk about aggression, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Has Its Self-Driving Car Assign A Secret Value To Your Life, Patents It

Posted on July 21, 2014 by

Vehicle automation is fascinating, may possibly save thousands of lives each year, could reduce fuel consumption (an open question), and leaves many legal questions to be addressed (“who’s at fault when a self-driving car crashes???”). These are the required statements when … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, ratpag Observes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Silicon Valley And Detroit Hate Each Other

Posted on July 7, 2014 by

Anyone who follows vehicle automation might have noticed a slight difference in the way tech companies like Google and the auto industry promote their products. Google will take something that’s still in development, release a highly misleading vehicle of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, ratpag Observes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

You’re Not Having Any Adventures, Because You’re Sitting On Your Couch Like A Loser

Posted on June 26, 2014 by

Part of ratpag is off hiking in the Rockies, for like the eigth time this year, so a much less involved part of ratpag is running the show. ratpag is tired, and is working off a discontinued 8.9″ Samsung Galaxy … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, Buses and/or Alcohol, ratpag Judges | 1 Comment

Is The New Google Car Street-Legal?

Posted on May 31, 2014 by

Google announced its new autonomous vehicle Wednesday, and it is truly driverless. No steering wheel, no pedals, similar to the Induct autonomous vehicle available for sale since January. That one was French, though, so maybe it doesn’t count. Absent from the media coverage is … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, Transportation Legislation Station | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Second Best And Least Legal Of The Undriveable Cars

Posted on May 30, 2014 by

Maya Angelou died last Wednesday. Then Google unveiled a prototype of its first true driverless vehicle. So it’s kind of a wash, at least to the tech media whose breathless coverage is starting to get embarrassing. Even Alan Kornheiser of Princeton is … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, Transportation Legislation Station | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

California DMV Dares to Regulate

Posted on May 21, 2014 by

Let ratpag put you in the mood. California released the final version of their autonomous vehicle testing regulations today. Here at ratpag, we expected a slight update of Nevada’s regulations, since basically every state and DC have done a cut-paste. … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brookings Institute Is The Rapper, Alain Kornhauser Is The Hype Man

Posted on May 5, 2014 by

ratpag has been traveling, part of the team to coal country and the others to flyover country, so today’s post is going to be a little light. Fortunately Alain Kornhauser pushed out another email blast of “analysis” Friday, and what … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, Transportation Legislation Station | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Does Uncertainty Breed Innovation? No, No It Doesn’t.

Posted on April 30, 2014 by

Indulge ratpag, and meditate on this piece of performance art. Confused? This is a trailer for a 25-page Brookings Institution report published last week. First impressions: what is up with that trailer? When did the entire world become the imagination of … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars, Transportation Legislation Station | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Transit is Dead, Hail the Self-Driving Car

Posted on April 18, 2014 by

In our rush to apologize for a late Thursday post, ratpag somehow double-published an apology. At first ratpag thought maybe that we could count one of those posts as Friday, but then ratpag realized that’s lazy. Laziness kills the five-days-a-week blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Autonomous Vehicles / Self Driving Cars | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment