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Driverless  By  cover art

Driverless

By: Hod Lipson, Melba Kurman
Narrated by: George Newbern
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Publisher's summary

In the year 2014, Google fired a shot heard all the way to Detroit.

Google's newest driverless car had no steering wheel and no brakes. The message was clear: cars of the future will be born fully autonomous, with no human driver needed. In the coming decade, self-driving cars will hit the streets, rearranging established industries and reshaping cities, giving us new choices in where we live and how we work and play.

In this book, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman offer listeners insight into the risks and benefits of driverless cars, and a lucid and engaging explanation of the enabling technology. Recent advances in software and robotics are toppling long-standing technological barriers that for decades have confined self-driving cars to the realm of fantasy. A new kind of artificial intelligence software called deep learning gives cars rapid and accurate visual perception. Human drivers can relax and take their eyes off the road.

When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel, driverless cars will offer billions of people all over the world a safer, cleaner, and more convenient mode of transportation. Although the technology is nearly ready, car companies and policy makers may not be. The authors make a compelling case for why government, industry, and consumers need to work together to make the development of driverless cars our society's next "Apollo moment".

©2016 Hod Lipson & Melba Kurman (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Driverless

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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent Overview of Current State of Driverless Cars

Solid introduction to the tech behind and history of driverless cars. There are a number of interesting sections regarding the possible impacts to the economy, insurance industry, codification of the value of human life, and ethics of machines making life-or-death decisions. The narrator is great and the book will fly (drive?) by.

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3 people found this helpful

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Read this!

If you want to learn about this subject, not just what is but what’s coming and could be coming, and how it will impact everything from leisure to insurance liability, this is your book. Simply superb, and well crafted from start to finish. Highly recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good starting point for autonomous driving

It’s dated due to coming out in 2016 but the learning was still worth the time (thanks to 1.5 speed). Saw Hood Lipson speak in 2022 and his presentation made me interested in the topic and now I ‘get it’ much more how closely linked EV and autonomous driving are.


This is a great candidate for a discounted or free Amazon audio book considering how old it is on a cutting edge topic. It’s odd that Amazon hasn’t figured out the monetization of audible yet.

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  • Overall
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    2 out of 5 stars

Lots of repetitive predictions

War on cars? Yes you commute to work, errands and leisure activities. Cars or humans can be an issue, but so are roads. All roads aren't just long straight and empty. Research on AI and Robotics is a pretty good section of the book
AI does not see, react or think. This is science fiction, mixed with predictions and some facts.
I happen to enjoy driving. I do it for fun on weekends, along with a pretty big community. Taking humans from behind the wheel, will just invent new issues. Driverless will mean they are all electric cars. I possibly expect to see some by 2030, but they won't takeover.

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Downer

Worst book I’ve listened to in ages.
Makes me want to kill myself.
Chicken Little got nothing on this.
Dreary prediction of the future.
Fortunately he knows nothing of human behavior.
I predict his predictions to be way off.

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  • Overall
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    4 out of 5 stars

Driverless

This book was not what I expected. Parts were boring but it is a comprehensive state of the state of A.I. I expected more of driverless technology but it goes in related/unrelated fields that use the same technologies.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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WOW!

If you are at all interested in the future, maybe where to put a little bit of your money now, or just curious as to how the future could develop, this book is for you!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to listening to it again!
The reader has a way of keeping the book alive!
Well done!

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Excellent and Inspiring

A very factual and balanced presentation of the possible future with Driverless Pods - the word 'pod' is used to differentiate these future vehicles from cars with steering wheels and dashboards, etc.

Written by Pod Lipson and Melba Kurman, it is very clear, thorough and cogent; and uses the word 'Pod' many many times.

Inspiring and thoughtful. It gives one pods for thought.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting

Very in depth book on Ai driving. Learned more that I thought I would on multiple subjects. This book goes deep and wide to cover the subject.

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I want it to cancel subscription.

I want it to cancel subscription.

I already read this book completely.

So I want to quit listen this audible book.

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