Robotic traffic jams are already here!

Earlier last week, I found myself stuck in an only-in-Silicon-Valley traffic jam.  In front of me was a Google geo-survey vehicle, and behind me was a Google robotic car.  And it was was hardly the weirdest traffic jam I have found myself in. A few months back, while taking a short cut past the Google campus on my way to NASA Ames Research Center, I got stuck in a traffic jam of a dozen-plus Streetview and robotic car vehicles.  Apparently the autonomous vehicles were having a problem parsing who would move first at a 4-way stop! Clearly the future is one in which we will still have traffic jams — but no one will be in the cars…

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