A prototype of a driverless car was brought to Washington on Tuesday so that it could be inspected by members of Congress.
According to a report in Yahoo News, the inspection was rather too enthusiastic and, somehow, the car stopped working! The perfect example of Murphy’s Law in action!
Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University brought the vehicle to Congress to demonstrate that, in the future, driving would be safer without a human at the wheel. And, as if to prove that when people have anything to do with cars, something will go wrong – it did!
It is not clear which set of circumstances caused the emergency switch to cut out and shut down the operation of the car, but it suddenly stopped working.
The driverless version of the 2011 model Cadillac SRX was brought from Pittsburgh by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee following three months of preparation and coordination. The university had financed the installation of six special transmission switches which were installed by the DC Department of Transportation at intersections on the pre-planned route.
Following the long established custom of Congress , no one was was prepared to take responsibility for what had happened. A spokesperson for the Transportation Committee said that it was the responsibility of Carnegie Mellon, while a spokesperson for Carnegie Mellon said he could not say what had caused the vehicle to stop functioning.
Being diplomatic, the Carnegie Mellon representative wouldn’t say who was in the vehicle at the time, or, indeed if anyone had been in the driverless car when it stopped. He was also reticent about where the car was going to taken to be repaired. He simply commented that “they took it to test it” and it stopped working.
They hoped to have the car fixed and back on the road by today (Wednesday) and plan to reschedule the test drives to accommodate all the members of the panel by Thursday.
Yahoo News had been booked to take a test drive , as had Politico Pro which sent out an alert that the car had shut down. Adam Snider, the person who sent the alert, Tweeted, “No, it wasn’t me who broke the driverless car ,”
Earlier, Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, had spoken highly of the car and the rides he’d previously taken:
“I want other members of Congress to be able to ride in the vehicle because I think it’s so important to see the technology in action. This innovation is coming, the technology, the future, is coming to our streets and to our highways of America in this autonomous vehicle.”
So, it was red faces all around, and a recognition that, whatever may happen in the future, it’s a good idea to have a human behind the wheel – even of driverless cars – for now.
Image: reuters/Gary Cameron
