Google wants its cars to follow fewer rules of the road

The Breakthrough

Google programmed its self driving cars to follow all the rules of the road. Some have described them as "driving like a grandma:" strictly following speed limits and the like. Chris Urmson, head of Google's car division, said the cars are "a little more cautious than they need to be." So now they're trying to make them drive more like a human.

The Implications

Although Google's cars have been in 16 accidents, in every circumstance it was the fault of the other human driver. Google isn't strictly programming in these kind of little cut corners, but instead is teaching it to drive more like a human through deep learning techniques. By building human-like flexibility into its self-driving cars, they could be better on the road with other humans, and perhaps solve some of the big issues with AI today.