Sunday, April 23, 2017

Google Developing Self-Riding Bike

Google announced today that it is in the testing stage of a self-riding bicycle. Riders have been seen in the Bay Area on bicycles that have no handlebars, which are replaced by a control unit that contains an antenna, camera, and onboard computer. As the bike weaves through traffic, the riders read newspapers, catch up on their social media, eat breakfast (using the attached meal tray), even take naps.

"We have been pleased, so far," says Edward Merxx, Director of Development for the project. "We are still refining the programming, to make the bike more predictable when sharing the road with cars. To that end, we have programmed it to run red lights and stop signs, ride the wrong way on one-way streets, without lights at night, and up on the sidewalk when traffic is heavy. We are still working on the synthesized speech module to make it sound more insistent and peeved when shouting, 'On your left!' at the last minute."

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