The robot cars are here. And they demand to be set free. With you locked inside.
Google acknowledged a year ago that it's been developing self driving cars—a logical project for any search engine intent on eventually enslaving humans. Anyway, Google is now asking state legislators for permission to unleash its robotically operated cars on Nevada roads. The self driving cars would only be used in tests, for now, but human "drivers" would be free to text, Twitter and what have you under an exemption Google is seeking to Nevada's "distracted driver" law. The exemption would allow the Nevada tests to go beyond Google's road tests in California, where fully engaged drivers are free to let Google robots take the wheel under existing automobile laws, as Jalopnik has reported.
In Nevada, Google's lobbyists have focused on robots' inherent superiority to all humans, telling assemblymembers that "the autonomous technology would be safer than human drivers, offer more fuel-efficient cars and promote economic development," according to the New York Times.
Watch out, Nevada politicians. Next thing you know, Google will be saying that robots are "safer," more "efficient" and "less prone to horrible bribery and sex scandals" than you, and should govern the state. (Google would, of course, be correct in such a statement.)
[Photo via Steve Jurvetson/Flickr]