How Google’s self-driving car works
October 20, 2011
Robot car (credit: Google)
Once a secret project, Google’s autonomous vehicles are now out in the open, quite literally, with the company test-driving them on public roads and, on one occasion, even inviting people to ride inside one of the robot cars as it raced around a closed course, reports IEEE Spectrum blog.
Google’s fleet of robotic Toyota Priuses has now logged more than 190,000 miles (about 300,000 kilometers), driving in city traffic, busy highways, and mountainous roads with only occasional human intervention.
The project is still far from becoming commercially viable, but Google has set up a demonstration system on its campus, using driverless golf carts, which points to how the technology could change transportation even in the near future, reducing road accidents, congestion, and fuel consumption.
What the on-board computer "sees" and how it detects other vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights (credit: Google)
Comments (3)
by Kristoph77
Two google cars traveling together, do they share their “vision” with each other and therefore have an even better understanding of events going on around it? What about a pack of cars traveling together, will they move in unison like a school of fish?
by Kristoph77
This tech will have as big of an impact upon our world as the internet has had. The software being developed here will be the foundation of all robots that we are about to being to share our world with and the innovation that explode from this development will change every aspect of our lives.
by andmar74
It seems to me that the car is very reliable, and could be ready for consumers in a few years.