At least one person isn’t ready for Google’s futuristic world of self-driving cars: CEO Sergey Brin’s mother-in-law, who freaked out during a ride in one of the robo-cars.
Esther Wojcicki’s wild ride took place during Google’s autonomous-car coming-out party, when the team headed to TED 2011 to show off their latest project.
Engineers gave demos to TED attendees on top of a multi-story car park, with an autocross course set up to prove that an autonomous vehicle can be pushed to the limits — even if those limits are pretty low in a Prius.
Mixing with the squeals of the tires you can hear the squeals of Wojcicki and her passengers as the Prius darts around the makeshift track, narrowly avoiding a few light poles and assorted shrubbery. But she obviously wasn’t too shaken by the experience. She insisted on another go-round.
