Google self-driving car

Google's self-driving car is an ambitious project that hopes to end human error behind the wheel with a very Googley solution: software. The tech titan's robo-cars have logged more than 700,000 hours since it began working on the vehicles in 2009. Google expects to have them ready for public use between 2017 and 2020.

The goal, as Urmson describes it, is to imagine a world where cars are safe. Not only are more than 33,000 people killed annually (PDF) in the US in car crashes, but such accidents are the leading cause of death (PDF) for people under the age of 45.

[judging from some the maniac drivers I see out there, it already sounds safer than a lot of the cars currently on the road]

[via facebook]

[5/27/14] Google X builds a self-driving car from the ground up.

[7/31/14] Driverless cars will be on British roads in just six months time, Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced today.

The Government will allow the first trials of computer-controlled cars to start in January, as part of a move to update the law to allow driverless cars on UK roads.

Ministers have previously admitted that the current Highway Code and rules of the road are inadequate for the new generation of vehicles which pilot themselves.

In June, Google unveiled its computerised ‘hands-free’ self-driving bubble car, which has no steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedals.

Instead, it has buttons for start, pull over and emergency stop and a computer screen showing the planned route.

Google plans to have prototypes ready to test later this summer and says the goal is for the car to ‘shoulder the entire burden of driving’.

In the UK, ministers will look at current road regulations to ensure there is an appropriate way to testing driverless cars.