Google Tests New Driverless Cars

Freedom of the open road. That is the idea behind what many automobile advertisements use to lure potential buyers to their brands. Admittedly, there really is joy to be found behind the wheel of a new ride on any road, open or not. Of course there is little joy to be found during rush hour, in city driving, or in inclement weather. These are the moments we often wish there were such a thing as auto-pilot. The concept, as much of a joke it may sound like, may not be too far away. Google for example, is currently researching driverless transportation.

In a post labeled "What we're driving at" found on their (Google's) corporate blog over the weekend, project leader and "Distinguished Software Engineer," Sebastian Thrun wrote that the research could show that such advanced technologies could "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions," and that "self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new 'highway trains of tomorrow.'"

How does it all work? The post also noted that scientists connected to earlier unmanned car projects organized by the government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are involved in the current project hosted by Google. A driver has always been on board during testing, and so far, seven cars have traveled about 140,000 miles with limited human intervention, and each of the seven cars being road tested have traveled at least 1,000 miles with zero human control. As smart cars, basically, they are aware of speed limits, maps, and more. By using aids and sensors such as cameras, radar detectors, and lasers, the test cars are able to determine where there are in relation to other cars and to detect their speed. The blog reports that the cars have successfully driven between Northern and Southern Californian, form office to office, and have also been tested on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), and San Francisco's famous Lombard Street.

Although Google hasn't announced how the research fits into or benefits its core business model, analysts agree that the company is wealthy enough for such endeavors. AP Business writer Daniel Wagner points out in his article featured at Yahoo! News that - "It's not the first signal that Google wants to change how people get from place to place." In fact, in his TechCrunch Disrupt conference speech on Sept. 29^th, The Internet giant's CEO Eric Schmidt was quoated as saying "your car should drive itself. It just makes sense."

Sources/Resources:

Google Corporate Blog: What we're driving at

Yahoo! News: Google tests cars that can steer without drivers