Home Tags Posts tagged with "cars"

cars

0

Those in government positions often sit at the top of the food chain when it comes to what happens in our country. They may not need to take defensive driving for auto insurance discounts like the rest of us, but they still have to get from place to another (and they can’t always take Air Force One to do it). Sometimes it’s fun to see what kinds of cars they drive to get more insight into who they are and what they want. Of all the vehicles in the world, they picked one to drive above all else. It doesn’t have to be fancy, perfect, or even expensive, it just has to connect with them in some way. See what some of the top names in our country have chosen throughout time as their one and only (at least, for a little while.)

Image result

Hillary Clinton (Oldsmobile Cutlass)

Hillary Clinton doesn’t tend to do a lot of driving these days, but could probably be considered one of the top 10 defensive drivers in the world due to her being an overachiever. When she did choose to get behind the wheel though, she went with a 1986 Cutlass. Not exactly the most exciting car, but the Cutlass did have a certain longevity about it. The Cutlass may not be well remembered today, but it won many awards after it debuted for its reliable drive. Believe it or not, people were pretty into the design as well.

George W. Bush (Ford F-150)

It’s tough not to expect a Texan to drive a truck. These manly vehicles are built to haul, and they seem to have a touched a nerve in the former President. He’s had a lot of cars throughout the years, but the F-150 pickup seems to be one of his favorites. This truck has been around since the late 1940s, and comes in a variety of engine sizes. The interior is comfortable, and the technology of Ford is made to keep you connected to all things entertainment.

Barack Obama (Ford Escape Hybrid)

Celebrities have been famously opting for more environmentally friendly cars over the flashy ones that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just because they might be able to afford something better, doesn’t mean that they’re willing to sacrifice the Earth for a car that sucks down gas like it’s been in the desert for weeks without a sip of water. The Ford Escape Hybrid is obviously great on gas mileage, and it gives the President the family-friendly (not to mention safe) SUV you would expect a dad with two kids to want. With front-wheel drive and lots of room for the kids and their gear, this car gets up to 34 miles to the gallon.

John McCain (Cadillac CTS)

McCain may not have made his goal to be President, but he’s certainly had a lot of accomplishments under his belt. Just like the rest of these minted treasures, he’s had a lot of cars to his name. However, he seemed to be a huge fan of the CTS. Cadillacs have long been associated with wealth and comfort, and they certainly have enough space inside to ensure that no one feels crowded or cramped. With excellent fuel mileage, decent power, and incredible performance, it’s no wonder that Mr. McCain kept a special place in this heart for this vehicle.

Recognize any of the vehicles on this list as favorites of your own? Putting a space between politicians and you is the wrong way to think about the leaders of the country. They chose a different career path than you, but they look for many of the same things you do when it comes to getting around town!

Salvează

0

Back in 2012, Google managed to successfully lobby the state of Nevada to allow driverless cars to take to the roads.  Ever since, we’ve watched in wonder as the Google car successfully navigated more than a million miles, all by itself.

google-car

This image provided by Google shows a very early version of Google’s prototype self-driving car. The two-seater won’t be sold publicly, but Google on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 said it hopes by this time next year, 100 prototypes will be on public roads. (AP Photo/Google)

Credit: flickr.com

It’s all been made possible by recent advances in artificial intelligence. It was once thought that making a driverless car would be impossible because it is not possible to program a computer to deal with every possible eventuality on the road.

But now the science of artificial intelligence has moved on substantially. Robots now have the capacity to learn without having to be preprogrammed. Instead, they learn a bit like you and I. Just like us a computer can now receive information from the physical world and interpret in a useful way. In a way, it can really “see.”

Google call this technology deep learning. It’s what allowed IBM’s computer Watson to beat the best players in the world at Jeopardy! back in 2011. And it’s what’s allowing the Google car to navigate the roads of Nevada today.

Each time the car goes out, it builds up a bigger picture of how the road works. Being a computer, it’s then able to remember millions of specific patterns out there in the real world. Nobody programmed all those patterns into the car. It just learned, like we do, that patterns can be generalized.

For us, this is a piece of cake. For computers, this is a quantum leap. It means that they can predict when dangers might be about the arise on the road and take the necessary action to prevent them from happening.

It’s essential we use this technology given the sheer number of car accidents on our roads. In America alone some fifty thousand people die each year, and hundreds of thousands of others are injured.

Then, consider the knock-on effects of all that carnage. Millions of dollars of investment in people, wasted. Billions of dollars of insurance paid out just to replace car wrecks. Thousands of businesses disrupted by unforeseen rises in their insurance premiums.

car-accident

Credit: flickr.com

The autonomous car has the potential to solve these problems, and it’s all based on one of the highest technologies out there. Companies like Tesla are already selling consumer cars with some elements of autonomy. Tesla’s model S, for example, will drive you down the highway without you having to lift a finger.

We’re not quite at the stage where the cars can do it all themselves, though. Manufacturers still have to figure out how to make the cars work when it’s dark and when roads don’t have sidelines. But the road testing that’s been done so far is promising, and the number of naysayers is dwindling.

It’s quite incredible that 10 years ago the idea that we might have the first fully autonomous car by 2020 was far-fetched. Now, though, it seems like a certainty. The technology is virtually proven. All that it needs is one final push and we can finally rid ourselves of the endless carnage on our roads.

© © 2011 - 2023 BelleNews.com