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Mar 01 2013
Hardware

Will Self-Driving Cars Lead to Safer Roads? [#Infographic]

Accidents could be a thing of the past if we let computers take over, according to Google.

When I learned how to drive at the age of 16 my father was quick to warn me that cars are dangerous. This probably explains why I used to drive so slow that a tortoise could beat me in a drag-race.

Looking back, I probably should have been less worried about the cars and more worried about the people driving them. A new infographic from Insurance Quotes outlines the problem of human error behind the wheel and presents driverless cars as the solution.

More than 90 percent of all car accidents are caused by human error, according to Insurance Quotes’ infographic. There were 5.5 million U.S. car accidents in 2009 alone, killing 33,808 people and injuring another 2.2 million people.

Google, which has been a pioneer in the field, believes its self-driving cars present an ideal solution, and their approach shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, this is the company that deploys millions of bots to crawl the entire World Wide Web every day.

According to Google, driverless or computer-driven cars have better reflexes and awareness than humans. Plus, the cars can’t get distracted. The company’s driverless cars have a roof sensor to detect light, wheel sensors to position the vehicle and Google Street View for artificial intelligence.

Insurance Quotes predicts driverless cars will be cruising our roads by 2020. Three states (Nevada, Florida and California) have already passed laws legalizing the use of autonomous cars.

Check out the full infographic below to learn more about how driverless cars can eliminate human error.

self-driving cars infographic

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