Wonderful, amazing, awesome driverless car and Google a bunch and they could be near you! How could I not let my imagination run wild when I read the headline “Google Patents ‘Sticky Car’ for Driverless Collisions With Pedestrians“… Yes, a STICKY CAR even refers to “The system acts a bit like flypaper”…C’mon car flypaper! I couldn’t help drawing this Mental Health Humor cartoon.
… The system includes an adhesive layer that is positioned on the hood, front bumper, and/or front side panels of the vehicle… Upon impact with a pedestrian, the coating is broken exposing the adhesive layer…. The adhesive bonds the pedestrian to the vehicle so that the pedestrian remains with the vehicle until it stops, … ~ United States Patent Adhesive Vehicle Front End For Mitigation of Secondary Pedestrian Impact SUMMARY
A Sticky Car! The car that could save your life if it hits you…maybe, you’re not adhering to the law and jaywalking and without warning set out in front of Google’s Sticky Car.
Instead of bouncing off the hood and into traffic and getting more injuries or death…The pedestrian /victim would stick, adhere to the hood like a fly on flypaper for safety.
“In the event of a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian, injury to the pedestrian is often caused not only by the initial impact of the vehicle and the pedestrian, but also by the ensuing, secondary impact between the pedestrian and the road surface or other object,” Google writes in the patent.
Sticky Car makes me dream up so many possibilities, it makes me laugh. When I read the article–simultaneously began drawing the cartoon…lol.
Google Self-Driving Car
Okay, this is not a joke, but if you don’t know, Google has a fleet of self-driving cars. It is nothing new. Google did not invent the concept. Self-driving cars have been around since the 50’s.
Google self-driving car they just made it a reality (note they are not alone: Apple, Tesla, and Volvo are also involved in similar research). The “autonomous motor vehicles” are far from perfect, but continuous upgrades to software and programming to the smart car are making it almost scary…A machine that thinks for itself and drives better than me…Think Terminator, Skynet – AWESOME!
“A fleet of 57 vehicles have so far clocked up around 1.5 million driverless miles,” says Sputnik, news media (really it’s now 70 per Agence France-Presse, 20 May 2016). With programming updated there is also safety updated too, that is the sticky hood. Sadly, each year there are about 32k (as of 2014) Traffic Crash Fatalities. Note, if there is any good news about this number is that…it’s gone down from 40k a year. Of this 32k (as of 2014) Traffic Crash Fatalities were 5,813 pedestrians.
More than 5.4 million police-reported motor vehicle crashes occurred in the United States in 2010. Twenty-eight percent of those crashes (1.54 million) resulted in an injury, and fewer than 1 percent (30,196) resulted in a death. [Data Crashes 2010]
Because there is a lot of needless loss of life–these cars could help save lives. Even if they save one life, is that not worth it? I am sure if it was your life or your child’s life, it would be worth it.
There is a lot being talked about like who will regulate/control the programming? How will they be programmed? If there are any Star Trek Fans, then you will get this reference… but how would the car handle a Kobayashi Maru scenario? Just things to think about.
Mental Health Humor by Chato Stewart
Vehicle-Safety Specialists: Don’t Be Afraid You are Glued to My HOOD For Your Protection…
United States Patent: “The adhesive bonds the pedestrian to the vehicle so that the pedestrian remains with the vehicle until it stops”
Caption: The Sticky Car
Chato Stewart
Reference
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (2016). Traffic Crash Fatalities. NCSA DATA RESOURCE. Retrieved on May 30, 2016, from http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
Photos
Google Car Photo by Michael Shick
Google Sign Photo by feliperivera