How do those Google Driverless Cars avoid things darting onto the roadway?

[Voyager]

@thirdname

It seems unlikely to me that they could cope with every unusual situation that comes up. It would seem to require true artificial intelligence. Could it deal with these situations?

-there’s an obstacle in the road. Is it worth swerving around an possibly causing an accident? Can it tell a cardboard box from a giant hunk of steel? A dog from a baby?

Why, should it run over one and not the other? As for cardboard boxes, I’d avoid them also, since you have no way of knowing what is inside.

-can it deal with construction zones, conflicting lane painting, unmarked pavement etc? Unmapped dirt roads?

I drive the same roads the Google cars drive, and I can assure you we’ve got tons of conflicting lane painting/no lane markers here. Including some right near Google HQ. I’m pretty sure it can handle that.