The Automatic Car News was A Prank, But Self-Driving Cars Are Out There!

NASCAR & Google Confirmed Their April Fools’ Joke BUT before you write off the joke about driverless cars on the track, there have been self-driving cars out there for sometime now!

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I guess there was some confusion as to the idea of a self guided car taking to the tracks of NASCAR... or was there?

Yes, it is April 1st, and yes, NASCAR and Google working together to bring self-driving cars to the race circuit was a bit of a joke.  Please tell me you weren't fooled, right?

RIGHT???

But... before you get disappointed about the premise of self driving cars, you might want to take a peek around the web.

Google has been testing computer driven cars for quite some time.  In fact by 2010, they had logged 140,000 miles with them in California.

And something I've been following for quite some time is what's called the DARPA Grand Challenge.  It was a huge test/contest for computer driven, or robot driven cars.  Cars that drive themselves...

The below vid is from the 2007 year...  and once they ID'd good performers, we stopped hearing about the challenge!!!  Hmm....

Check out the first few minutes of this 6-minute video




youtube video source link

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NASCAR Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 1, 2012) – NASCAR and Google today confirmed what many expected throughout the morning – the two companies working together to bring autonomous vehicle technology to NASCAR race cars was Google’s very popular, annual April Fools’ Day joke.

The collaboration highlights an evolving relationship between the two organizations that currently has them exploring possible business and technology opportunities in the future. One prime example of that collaboration lies in the recently created and launched NASCAR YouTube Channel.

“We have the best drivers in the world and would never consider replacing them despite any technological advancement,” said Brian France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR. “With that being said, technology is one of the most important sectors for the future of our sport, and we’re excited about our conversations with Google as we continuously explore ways to improve the fan experience and expose NASCAR racing to new audiences.”

NASCAR’s official channel on YouTube, www.youtube.com/nascar, launched earlier this year in an effort to reach new fans via the largest online video destination in the world. The content on the NASCAR YouTube channel consists of highlights, both current and historical, as well as select NASCAR.COM video franchises including The Weekly Preview Show and Fantasy Showdown.

“We were really happy to work with NASCAR on this April Fools’ Day joke,” said Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, in a post on the company’s blog. “The technological advancements this sport has made in the last decade are impressive and while we won’t be providing self-driving cars to compete in the races, we look forward to working together with NASCAR in the future on projects like their YouTube channel.”

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[ boston.com: Google Cars ]