Google has been testing the technology of self-driving cars for a few years, actually going out on the roads of Nevada at speeds up to 70 MPH, and with no human intervention. And astonishingly, the fleet has zero accidents in the 300,000 miles the cars have driven. (Normally, correct grammar would require me to write “…the cars have been driven”, but in this case, it’s the cars themselves doing the driving!)
You could sit in the passenger seat and relax…these cars feature sensors that can track pedestrians, understand traffic lights, and even merge at highway speeds.
California governor Jerry Brown has signed state legislation that will pave the way for driverless cars, signing the bill after he travelled to Google headquarters in a self-driving Toyota Prius to show his full support for the new technology. The law will establish safety and performance regulations to test and operate driverless vehicles on California’s roads.
“Today we’re looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow’s reality—the self-driving car,” Mr. Brown told journalists gathered to witness the historic moment for smart cars. “Anyone who gets inside a car and finds out the car is driving will be a little skittish, but they’ll get over it.”
It’s questionable whether people will get used to the idea of autonomous cars soon, but Google believes that it will take less than 10 years until the first self-driving vehicles will be available on the market. Car manufacturers such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Ford have been working on autonomous car technology for years.
Read the entire article at RideStory.com.