My collection of self-driving cars…

…articles. 🙂 I don’t have a self-driving car yet. I like to learn about self-driving cars, and I share relevant articles, photos, and videos in my self-driving cars Google+ collection. If you come across something that I might have missed, please send it to me! I’m more likely to share actual announcements and less likely to share speculation, but I like to read almost anything about the subject.

Getting my name out there

New Horizons is currently checking out Pluto and my name is on board. Today, I read that in 2005, you could give NASA your name and they’d burn it on a CD and attach it to the New Horizons probe. It sounded like something I would do. It turns out, it’s something that I did.

certificate with my name

By the way, I’m currently reading The Martian. I hadn’t read science fiction in a while, and I’m really enjoying the book. I’m looking forward to seeing the movie in October.

DRIVE UNIT STOP

Today while walking after picking up lunch, I spotted a Tesla Model S in a parking lot. This is not an unusual sight in Mountain View. What did grab my attention, however, was I saw something, a yellow box if I remember correctly, sticking out of the dashboard as I walked by. Curious, I walked up to the driver’s side window and looked in. It was a big red industrial-looking button that’s universally recognized as “emergency stop.” It was labeled “DRIVE UNIT STOP.” I assume that what I saw was an Autopilot test car, as the button reminded me of what’s in Google’s self-driving cars. I was surprised that Google’s installation of the button had a more integrated aesthetic. 🙂 Other than the button, the rest of the car looked normal to me as I continued along my way. I get to see some pretty neat stuff in the Bay Area.