Robotic Cars May Pull Death-Defying ‘High G’ Maneuver To Avoid Sloppy Human Drivers

Now that Google’s self-driving cars are on the long-path to mainstream availability, engineers have to cope with our robotic chauffeurs can deal with inferior human drivers. UK scientists have helped spark a new trend in research by exploring how automatic cars can avoid human-caused collisions. When braking isn’t an option to avoid a crash, Lecturer Matthew Best of Loughborough University has been running simulations of an action-movie-quality 70 MPH “high g” lane change.

“The optimal rapid lane-change would inevitably be an aggressive, high “g” manoeuvre that would destabilise the vehicle, and additional computing power would be needed to act quickly to correct under steer and other issues that arise during and after such a vehicle movement,” explains ScienceDaily. “G” refers to G-force, or the kinds of force one feels on a roller coaster.

At present, there isn’t enough computing power or real time data to pull off the live-saving stunt.

The paper itself isn’t as awe-inspiring as trend it portends. It’s a glimpse of the odd complications and fascinating solutions that artificially intelligent computers will have to cope with to co-exist with their human counterparts.