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Google Patents Self-Driving Car Tech to Identify Emergency Vehicles

- September 13, 2016 39

Google has had some interesting patents when it comes to self-driving technology. Remember the human flypaper? A patent filed back in 2014 and confirmed earlier this month is a little more realistic. The new technology allows the vehicles to distinguish and interact with emergency vehicles based on their unique flashing lights.

“In one aspect, one or more computing devices may identify a set of light sources from an image based at least in part on one or more templates, and may filter the set of light sources in order to identify one or more light sources corresponding to a potential emergency...

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Google Patents Adhesive Layer to Prevent Secondary Impact in Crashes

- May 19, 2016 101

Google’s self-driving car project has already logged more than 1.5 million miles since they began testing autonomous cars in 2014, but a recent patent has been turning heads in the automotive safety industry.

In the wake of the first accident caused by one of their self-driving cars a few months ago, Google received a patent this week to put a strong adhesive layer onto the front of their vehicles. Originally filed in 2014, the system is designed to keep a pedestrian on the hood of the car after being hit.

Here’s how it works. The purpose of the system is to prevent secondary impacts. A secondary...

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Google, Ford, Lyft, Uber and Volvo Cars Form Autonomous Vehicle Lobby

- May 09, 2016 95

On April 26th, Google, Ford, Lyft, Uber and Volvo Cars announced the formation of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. These are some of the biggest names in their respective industries teaming up for one purpose: to advocate for autonomous vehicles. The group will first work with civic organizations, municipalities and businesses to bring the idea of self-driving vehicles to life.

The formation of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets comes at an interesting time in the development of autonomous cars, the whole concept is still very new and not a lot of regulations or standards...

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Google’s Driverless Cars Run Into Problem: Cars With Drivers

- September 02, 2015 153

By MATT RICHTEL and CONOR DOUGHERTY SEPT. 1, 2015
Photo by Gordon De Los Santos/Google

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google, a leader in efforts to create driverless cars, has run into an odd safety conundrum: humans.

Last month, as one of Google’s self-driving cars approached a crosswalk, it did what it was supposed to do when it slowed to allow a pedestrian to cross, prompting its “safety driver” to apply the brakes. The pedestrian was fine, but not so much Google’s car, which was hit from behind by a human-driven sedan.

Google’s fleet of autonomous test cars is programmed to follow the letter...