The whole idea behind self-driving cars is they’ll be safer … but this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence …
Google recently filed a patent for a new type of car hood that’s STICKY … so if one of their self-driving cars HITS you, you won’t bounce off and get even MORE hurt when you hit the ground.
The patent even has a ridiculous diagram that shows how it works … a crash test dummy is about to get hit by a self-driving car, but then his back gets stuck to the hood like it’s flypaper.
It wouldn’t ALWAYS be sticky though. It would have a smooth protective coating, that only gets sticky when it’s cracked by something heavy enough . . . a.k.a., YOU.
Apparently the idea wouldn’t work for normal cars though, because if someone’s stuck to your hood, you can’t see where you’re going.
It’s not clear when Google might start testing it. But there’s also a chance they’ll scrap it and go with something else. (Lets hope.)
~ Jesse
(Mercury News / Mashable)
