Google Driverless Car: Limiting Destination Abilities will Prevent Its Misuse

In one of our past posts “The Driverless Car of Google Can Pick/Drop You from Anywhere”; we mentioned the use of RFID tags and QR codes in the driverless car of Google.

The RFID tags and QR codes help the car to perform accurate navigation and also help in detection of other key spots  such as parking locations and where a person is waiting for the car and the like.

Today in this post we will be describing another cool feature of Driverless car of Google that helps a car owner to avert its unauthorized use by imposing several restrictions. Google is including an option to limit destination abilities of the driverless car. A patent application regarding this feature has been filed by Google .

Google Driverless Car and the Enterprise fleet Owners

This feature will make the driverless car popular among enterprise fleet managers. A car fleet owner can easily avert misuse of his cars in following ways –

1. An owner of the car can prohibit some particular areas and a driver will not be able to drive the car in those prohibited areas.
2. The fleet manager can impose time restriction and can prohibit the use of vehicle outside the office hours.
3. The car generates a log and this log can be used to monitor the performance of a driver.

Google Driverless Car is Going to Be Favorite Car of Parents

Apart from enterprises, the car is going to be very popular among parents. The features of the car provide an assurance to the parents that their kids will be driving safely. Find out how –

1. Parents can prohibit areas such as pub, bars or high traffic areas, thereby deciding where their children can drive the car. The car will not let them enter in the prohibited areas.
2. Parents can set a predefined route for their kids and the rest will be assured by the robotic chauffeur. It will not let their kids to deviate from the set route.
3. Parents can impose time restrictions and like disallowing to use the car in nights or the time of peak traffic.

As we mentioned in starting Google is using a limiting destination ability feature to perform all of the above mentioned features. Now it’s time to dig deep and to find out how that how the car is going to do all of this.

User Accounts in Google’s Driverless Car

The autonomous car of Google is a robotic chauffeur that has a computer with high performance processor under its hood. Therefore, like personal computer, you have to log in into this computer also to authenticate yourself by providing your profile information.

Google may use biometric login system in its autonomous car. A biometric scanner may be installed on door of the car. This will take your fingerprints or will scan your eyes before allowing you to enter into the vehicle.

Alternatively, you have to first enter into the vehicle and then you have to identify yourself by logging into the system by entering your username and password. It will be similar to login into an email account.

The car will not start unless it authenticates you. Thus, an unauthorized person won’t be able to use your driverless car. Since in a home, any family member can drive the car, the car would have multiple accounts.

The fleet owner can impose restrictions on his drivers’ user account by marking certain areas as prohibited. In the similar manner, parents can set some areas as restricted areas for their kids’ accounts.

Apart from this, the time restrictions and the date restrictions will also be imposed on user accounts. For example, a father may set that his son should not be able to use his car after 10 PM. A car fleet owner can also impose similar kind of time and date restrictions on his drivers.

Suggested Read Google Driverless Car – Data Stored in Car Memory

Limiting Destination Abilities of Driverless Car

When someone has to use the car, he has to login into the system and has to enter the destination information into the navigation system of the driverless car. If the entered destination matches with the prohibited destination, the computer will deny the request to use the car.

If someone attempts to maneuver the car away from the predefined route or stop at a location which is restricted by the user’s profile, the autonomous vehicle will warn him. The computer of car warns its user by emitting an audio alert or by displaying warning message on car’s display.

Log Generation by Google’s Driverless Car

Whenever the computer of the car will determine that the user has left the predefined route or stopped at a restricted location, it will start recording his actions. The computer will record vehicle’s location and speed, and other related information and will save that. This information may then be accessed and reviewed by a parent, guardian, or a fleet owner.

Therefore, if you informed you dad that you are going out to watch movie and instead go to a pub, then chances are that your dad will know about it.

Driverless Car Relinquishing the Control

There are situations where we have to follow an alternate route when we get stuck in traffic or in road construction. In such cases, the car computer will allow the driver to deviate from the set path. However, to an extent only. If maximum deviation from a set route will occur the computer will relinquish controls from the driver and will drive it in autonomous mode by itself. Moreover, the computer does so without receiving any inputs from the driver.

Thus, the car helps a driver to reach his destination when driver has forgotten the way to his destination and started deviating from his set route.

This is like killing two birds with a single stone. It doesn’t let a car driver to take illicit benefits and at the same time helps him when a driver has forgotten the way to his destination.

Do you have any doubts or any questions in your mind? Spill the beans. Leave your responses in comment box provided below.

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