Self-driving cars are no longer a concept seen possible somewhere off in the far future. There are cars already on the market that can parallel park themselves and others that can recognize and autocorrect drivers drifting out of their lanes. Google has now produced a prototype that can drive itself completely. You couldn’t even drive if you wanted to, because Google has conveniently forgotten to include a steering wheel. They have also left off the brakes. Google has plans to start putting these autonomous driving machines on the streets sooner than later. Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, said “You’re going to start to see these driving around and we want to explain what it is.”
Brin continued by explaining that the car is one of eight projects that Google X has in development. The cars will not be for commercialization, but Google sees the project as the first step to revolutionizing the industry. Google Glass is another project that has come out of Google X, and the company plans to develop a balloon-powered internet service as well as airborne wind turbines. It’s shareholders hope that projects like these will create new sources of revenue as the company currently makes almost all of its profits from advertising.
The car will rely completely on its own sensors to accelerate, brake, and steer. As of this point the car has reached a top speed of 25 miles per hour. Google believes by putting more control in the hands of technology, they will be able to drastically curb injuries and death on the road. Chris Urmson, director of Google’s self-driving car project, announced “We’re planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and later this summer, our safety drivers will start testing early versions of these vehicles that have manual controls.”
We’re glad to hear that the car will have manual controls at some point. Trusting a computer to navigate you safely through a crowded and potentially life ending street is a big obstacle to overcome. Convincing people that feel comfortable knowing that they can’t take manual control is a lot to ask for. Humans make a lot of errors though, and self-driving cars could save potentially thousands of lives a year.
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