Google driverless cars to take to the roads

OK, so we know it’s been coming for a while.  But reality is about to bite as Google is now looking to actually take their autonomous cars off the track and onto the roads.

Before we all start panicking, it is important to note that the cars aren’t actually going to be released without having a driver on board – just in case the computer says no (although we are assured that it won't!). And for now, it’s not in the UK, either.

Chris Urmson, director of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, wrote in a blog;

"This summer, a few of the prototype vehicles we've created will leave the test track and hit the familiar roads of Mountain View, California, with our safety drivers aboard.”

Urmson assured readers of the blog that Google’s self-driving cars have been expertly tested and that the computer systems behind them all work properly.

He continued;

"We've been running the vehicles through rigorous testing at our test facilities, and ensuring our software and sensors work as they're supposed to on this new vehicle.”

"We're looking forward to learning how the community perceives and interacts with the vehicles, and to uncovering challenges that are unique to a fully self-driving vehicle - e.g. where it should stop if it can't stop at its exact destination due to construction or congestion.

"In the coming years, we'd like to run small pilot programmes with our prototypes to learn what people would like to do with vehicles like this.”

Finally, he added that the Google autonomous car fleet "has logged nearly a million autonomous miles on the roads since we started the project, and recently has been self-driving about 10,000 miles a week".

The self-driving cars will go no faster than 25mph and the actual human drivers can take control at any time if they need to.

"During this next phase of our project we'll have safety drivers aboard with a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal that allow them to take over driving if needed," he concluded.

As we are, it seems that Google are very keen to gauge the public interest and reaction to the driverless cars and also, how the cars will cope in an actual “road situation”.

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