Google has invented a car that drives itself, and it is already on the roads in California and Nevada.
A car that drives itself sounds futuristic, but Google has already invented it, and some of these self-driving vehicles have already racked up almost 300,000 miles. This is staggering considering the average American drives only about 12,000 each year.
Dont be too shocked when you see a driver-less car on the highway. Someday, it could be the transportation solution that you cannot do without.
The concept of a self driving or autonomous car had been around for a long time. As far back as 1939, General Motors was envisioning an electric car that used radio controls and circuits posted throughout roadways. Today, most of the news about the Google Car comes from the X Labs Self-Driving Car leader, Anthony Levandowski.
Although its corporate secrets are kept out of public scrutiny, in 2007 Google made the public aware that it had sent a self driving car on missions and has been using them for photographing streets for its Google Maps program since.
If no one is behind the wheel, can you trust this vehicle in motion? In reality, there are a variety of high-tech controls that the observer may not be aware of. For example, the cars are using radars, lasers, and cameras to “see” the surrounding environment it is driving in.
You know they exist, but can you buy one? So far, the Google developed technology is not for sale. Regardless, you can expect to hear more about them in the next decade. Many top newspapers report that Google executives state it will take “millions of miles of testing” before the company is ready to release a self driving car to the public market.
Note: The Google self-driving car logo (along with most of your personal information) is the property of Google Inc.
From CosmosBC.
