XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   J. Clarke wrote:   
   > In article <52e0c728$0$52806$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, dtravel@sonic.net   
   > says...   
   > > On 1/21/2014 9:49 PM, Your Name wrote:   
   > > > In article <52df5822$0$52798$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>, Dimensional   
   > > > Traveler  wrote:   
   > > >> On 1/21/2014 7:46 PM, Greg Goss wrote:   
   > > >>> "John F. Eldredge"  wrote:   
   > > >>>>   
   > > >>>> Several years back, something got royally screwed up in the Google   
   Maps   
   > > >>>> database.  If I recall correctly, going from one particular town to   
   > > >>>> another in Scotland showed, correctly, a land trip of about 20 miles.   
   > > >>>> Going in the reverse direction showed a trip of several hundred miles,   
   > > >>>> passing through three different countries and involving two trips   
   > > >>>> across   
   > > >>>> the North Sea.   
   > > >>>   
   > > >>> I forget whether it was Google Maps, or some predecessor mapping   
   > > >>> internet program, but I was once told to turn left from one car ferry   
   > > >>> onto another near Nanaimo.   
   > > >>>   
   > > >> I once had map software on my laptop while I was entering St. Louis via   
   > > >> a bridge across the Mississippi try to tell me to take a left turn from   
   > > >> the divided interstate highway bridge a hundred feet up in the air onto   
   > > >> the riverside jogging/bike path below.   
   > > >   
   > > > One example of NUMEROUS that prove self-driving cars simply aren't   
   > > > going to happen any time soon.   
   >   
   > If a self-driving car took its _only_ navigational information from a   
   > GPS this would be an issue.  But the Google cars take their information   
   > from a variety of sources and should not drive off of the road simply   
   > because a GPS tells them to.   
      
   Without massive amount of expensive changes to the roading system and /   
   or a sudden, and currently immpssible, increase in the functionality of   
   "artificial intelligence", there's no way to stop the cars going the   
   wrong way down a one-way street (as one example) simply because Google   
   Maps told them to.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)