Self driving cars and the future of mobility

Welcome to the end of road rage. Welcome, the Google driverless car.

The streets of California have become a bit more peaceful lately, thanks in part to Dr. Sebastian Thrun - who happens to be at the front of some the biggest technological innovations coming our way, including the Google Driverless Car and Google Glass. The car, or rather the fleet of cars – have been making their way around the streets of California these days, answering one of Thrun’s very personal quests - to save lives and reduce traffic accidents.  

"We've successfully driven roughly 200,000 miles across a wide variety of terrain and road conditions, and we're very pleased with the performance.”

Thrun, whose name has become synonymous with the happy consequences of technological disruptions like MOOCs (massively open online courses), will be on campus at the U of A October 29 to talk about the research journey that brought the car into being, beginning with the robotic vehicle ‘Stanley,’ who won a  DARPA Challenge in 2005 in the Mojave Desert. The event signalled such a significant turning point in the evolution of technology, that ‘Stanley’ is now on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Event details

Monday, October 29

3:30 PM

CCIS 1-430

University of Alberta

Sebastian Thrun's U of A talk on Udacity and the future of online learning.