Driverless cars coming soon

You are driving to school. You look up to see a pretty, hot air balloon. Whoa! You almost went through a stop sign! In a driverless car, you can look at the balloon. 【小题1】Car makers and others are already testing driverless cars or AVs (automated vehicles) in the U.S. and other countries. Driverless cars may be for sale by 2025!

【小题2】When a car is slipping on an icy road, the ABS can tap the brakes quickly. The wheels turn slowly but do not stop. The driver can then steer the car to safety.

Many cars also have parallel parking technology. These cars can park themselves along a street. No driver is needed. As cars get more driverless technology, they will be safer than cars with a driver. Driverless cars can move closer together on the road than cars with drivers. This may make driving on busy roads safer. 【小题3】Google’s driverless cars have been on the road since 2009 without a major crash.

A driverless car can see the road better than people with the help of radar, cameras, and lasers. Radar helps the car see things up to 100 meters away even in darkness or rain. 【小题4】Lasers that work like radar, called lidar, spin on the roof and build a 3D model of the world around the car.

Automated vehicles use a GPS to find the best way from one place to another. All the information from the radar, cameras, lasers, and the GPS goes to the Controller Area Network bus. A bus is a network that lets all those devices talk to one another. 【小题5】

Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn't exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin's work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.

Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin's grand entrance for a long time!

Imagine a set of people having a heated discussion in a room. The conversation can turn into a complete mess if there is no coordinator(协调员)to guide the chatter. Now, imagine the same situation taking place on roads. If people were to drive their cars randomly without caring about other vehicles, it could lead to chaos and result in accidents.

Although the purpose of a traffic signal is to regulate the flow of automobiles, traffic signals came into existence long before automobiles were invented. The idea for developing traffic signals began in the 1800s. It was in the year 1912 that the idea of having an electric traffic light popped into the head of an American police officer named Lester Wire. Two years later the first electric traffic light had become a reality and was fitted in the city of Cleveland Ohio. The first electric traffic light had only red and green lights.

By the year 1920, automatic traffic lights had become a huge success. They operated by changing their lights at fixed intervals of time. This sometimes caused unnecessary waiting for vehicles as the light would be red even when there were no vehicles passing from the opposite side. To remedy this, a microphone was fixed on the pole of the signal. And once the vehicle reached the signal all it needed to do was honk(鸣笛) and the light would change.

In the 1960s, with the invention of computers, traffic lights started to become computerized. At present, traffic all over the world can be monitored» so the lights can be controlled accordingly.

In the future, we will have connected vehicles that will be able to communicate with traffic signals and other vehicles. However, it will still all be a waste if we don't follow traffic rules. So, let's make a promise to follow traffic rules to ensure a smooth and safe drive for everyone on the road!