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Governor signs driverless car bill at Google HQ By Daniel DeBolt
G
ov. Jerry Brown arrived at Google Tuesday to sign a bill to allow the testing of driverless cars on California’s roads. And how did he get there? The governor rolled into the Mountain View campus alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin in one of the company’s self-driving vehicles. Gov. Brown told an audience before signing the bill that the state government “can either get in the way or we can help and and set the framework” for allowing self-driving vehicles on the road. The bill, authored by state Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-Pacoima) will allow licensed and bonded drivers to test the cars, and requires that a human be at the wheel in case of emergencies. The DMV is instructed to put the new
regulations into effect “as soon as practicable,” but no later than January, 2015. “Developing and deploying autonomous vehicles will save lives and create jobs,” Padilla said. “California is uniquely positioned to be a global leader in this field.” Brin said Google plans to have a “broad subset” of its employees test the cars in the next year, and that the technology will be available to the general public “several years after that.” “You can count on one hand the number of years before people will be able to experience this,” Brin said. Proponents of the cars say they will make roads safer, reduce traffic and even make more efficent use of parking lots because the cars can park themselves. See GOOGLE, page 9
VERONICA WEBER
Gov. Jerry Brown, flanked by state Sen. Alex Padilla (left) and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, signs a bill allowing self-driving vehicles on public roads for testing.
11th-hour donation saves Hacker Dojo By Daniel DeBolt
A
fter a months of fundraising, a last-minute, $57,000 donation has spared Hacker Dojo a city clampdown over code violations. “It was certainly a nail-biter finish,” said Katy Levinson, the Dojo’s director of development who has been running the fundraising campaign since late January to pay for $250,000 in fire safety and other improvements required by the city. “We weren’t sure what we were going to do if we didn’t make it.” The Dojo’s savior is the founder of Mountain View’s YouWeb, Peter Relan, who donated $57,000 to the cause. City officials had given the Dojo until Dec. 27 to
install fire sprinklers, fire exits, code-compliant staircases and three bathrooms that meet the American Disabilities act.
‘We were going to get too far behind schedule to pay for the renovations.’ KATY LEVINSON
The Dojo had met its goal on the fund-raising website Kickstarter, but was still shy over $50,000. “It was really begin-
ning to look like we were going to get too far behind schedule to pay for the renovations,” Levinson said. “To make the renovations, we had to raise in six months as much as our entire revenue from the year before. It was daunting.” “About two hours to go before the Kickstarter closed, I got a phone call from a man I’d never met before in my life, by the name of Peter Relan,” Levinson said. “Peter says, ‘What are you going to do if you don’t get the money?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but we’ll find a way to get by.’ He laughed. He slept on it and decided to pay the $50,000 to See HACKER DOJO, page 11
Khan in the classroom SCHOOL DISTRICT EXPANDING USE OF KHAN ACADEMY By Nick Veronin
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han Academy, the internet teaching sensation, will have a bigger presence in the classroom. Mountain View’s elementary and middle school district is expanding its use of the webbased teaching program, with more than 30 teachers set to bring the technology into their classrooms this year. Building upon the district’s use of Khan Academy last
year, when just a few teachers gave the program a test run, MVWSD Superintendent Craig Goldman estimates that as many as 35 instructors will be using the training exercises and instructional videos in class — either on laptops, desktops or tablet computers. Khan Academy offers a series of free, instructional YouTube videos and interactive workbook-type lessons (the vast majority of them relating to math). In an effort to encourage MVWSD to adopt their program, the company — which is headquartered See KHAN ACADEMY, page 7
Plan to yank 120 trees delays Mayfield project By Daniel DeBolt
T COURTESY CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW
he possibility of losing 120 trees is holding up a plan to revamp the former Mayfield Mall for a major office tenant. After paying $90 million for the 500,000-square-foot campus at 100 Mayfield Ave. earlier this year, Rockwood Capital and Four Corners Properties have proposed to remove 120 large “heritage” trees from the site,
irritating neighbors who had been relieved that the property would no longer be developed as row houses. Zoning administrator Peter Gilli shared many of the concerns at a Sept. 19 hearing where he denied the proposal to remove the trees. Residents of the Monta Loma neighborhood have grown attached to the hundreds of old trees that shade the 27-acre site,
planted when the Mayfield Mall became the region’s first indoor mall in the late 1960s. “People like the park-like atmosphere that it has,” said Wouter Suverkropp, president of the Monta Loma Neighborhood Association. Neighborhood residents often drive through the site’s streets to get to the neighborhood from San Antonio Road See MAYFIELD, page 9
September 28, 2012 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
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