Google has announced that they have developed cars that drive themselves and they have been testing them out on the streets of California for months. The vehicle has done over 140,000 miles and it was manned during the tests.
For the tests the vehicle had one person in the driving seat ready to take control incase something went wrong with the system. The passenger seat had an engineer who monitored the vehicle software operations on a computer. There was only one accident that occurred at a traffic light, where another car hit the vehicle at the back. Human error!
It might seem like an unusual project for Google, but this could potentially have big benefits. Google claims that it will reduce vehicle related death by half because they think computers are better at driving than humans. They also believe the vehicles’ instant reaction and full 360 degree awareness could allow them to drive far more closely together in the motorway than humans, reducing traffic congestion. It could also reduce the fuel consumption as computers could be more careful operating the gas.
The benefits sound really good but I personally believe we will have to wait a long time to see them come into production.
