The Self Driving Car

Google Experiments With Robot Car Prototype

The concept of a self driving car may seem futuristic, but it's not as far off as some might think.  As is usually the case with Google, the future is now.  That's why the search engine giant has already logged logged over 140,000 miles on California roads with 7 self driving car prototypes. 

“Our automated cars have driven across the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe,” wrote engineer Sebastian Thrun in an official blog posting. 

Each prototype is equipped with cameras, lasers, radar and GPS to understand its surroundings and navigate safely. The car’s sensing capabilities are combined with data stored on Google’s servers, which provides advanced knowledge about the road. This includes lane counts and configurations, information on signs, and the location of things like traffic signals.

Just who did Google have working on this project?  They recruited engineers from various teams that competed in the DARPA Challenges, a series of robot car races hosted by the U.S. Department of Defense. 

“Your car should drive itself … it’s a bug that cars were invented before computers,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. 

Thurn also said that safety has been the company's first priority on this project.  He said that the cars were never unmanned, there was a trained safety driver in the car during all test runs. 

Currently, there are several cars currently on the market with automatic braking and lane holding technologies.  Self driving cars may be the eventual next step.  While the idea is still in it's beta phase, Google is sure to garner attention as the project develops.