Eric Schmidt: our autonomous cars drive better than you ... drunk

Larry Page and Eric Schmidt participated in the 2011 Zeitgeist conference, after which they answered questions from the audience ( video ). Answering one of the questions about Moore's law, Larry Page gave the example of autonomous cars as one of those applications that still urgently need to increase the performance of processors. He said that when they began work on such systems, they were convinced that in fact it was not as difficult as it seemed before. Computers quite successfully cope with management now, if they receive all the necessary information in real time. Then Eric Schmidt interrupted his colleague and added: “They drive a car better than you, when you are drunk. This is where we start. ”

Such a remark caused laughter in the audience, and Larry Page began to talk about the driving qualities of people of different ages. Definitely, the computer is already coping with the management of the car better than the youngest and oldest drivers, approaching the average human level. Larry Page said that there has been significant progress, the quality of programs is gradually improving.

The video of the entire performance is 45 minutes, the talk about autonomous cars starts at 29:19.