Hasta La Ideas

By Ben Valentine

After enjoying a short vacation, I finally read Google’s post unveiling their brand new self-driving car prototype. I was surprised by just how disappointingly adorable the transformative car was. Their release, “Just Press Go: Designing a Self-Driving Vehicle,” didn’t mention why their exciting vehicle had such a kawaii face-like appearance, but our Core77 readers knew why: people are never comfortable with radical shifts. What we don’t understand, we fear, and driving is dangerous enough already, thank you very much.

Forumite c4b7 believes that the launch video and surprising design is a “way to make a drastic societal change simple and intuitive.” Another user, Cyberdemon elaborates, “Given the amount of scary lasers, cameras and sensors, if it looked like an F117 Stealth Fighter it may be cooler, but probably scare the crap out of people.” I completely agree.

We needed the awkward and hybrid Prius before an extremely cool, sleek, and fast Tesla could take hold in the market. This type of transitioning of new technology into public acceptability is usually mitigated by distance and the price tag. Usually nobody but a few wealthy organizations can afford to experiment with new technologies at first. We only catch glimpses of the latest robots from DARPA through YouTube where we can safely watch them at a distance. If they were being tested first on our streets we’d freak out.

The problem (and the excitement) with Google is that their product is only really impressive if it can share the same roads as everyone else. To do that, Google has to get us comfortable with that idea first, even if the technology works perfectly well. This is a similar problem Google faced with Glass, and it seems like they’re learning from their missteps.

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