Google purpose-built robot cars tested on public roads

[Jesus Malverde]

This summer some of the self-driving cars will be tested on the roads around Mountain View, California, where the search giant is based.
Before now, the small vehicles have only driven on test tracks and have not mixed with regular traffic.

Google has tested autonomous vehicles on public roads but all of them have been heavily modified Lexus SUVs.

The robot cars will not be completely autonomous, but will have safety drivers on board who can take over if needed.

"Every moment has been building towards putting these cars on the roads where we can start learning even more from them," said Jaime Waydo, systems engineer in the self-driving project, in a video released to accompany the announcement.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32750810

[Cassidy1]

1. I love this cool idea

I love the self-driving car. I hope that this finally leads to smaller cars with ever better emissions with better gas mileage. This would also take all the nuts off the road. You could better control the "rogue" drivers who think they own the road.

People would still have to pay attention because I am sure there would still be a couple of manual steps. But you could still make people keep both hands on the wheel, for instance. It would make people still pay attention while the car mostly drives itself. Just like the airline pilot has to pay attention, even on auto pilot for the plane. People have talked about things like removal of one hand from the wheel would result in a "micro penalty" for the driver. Not a fine like today, of course, but say you would get points off a license with 10 hands off the wheel. It's a controversial idea that would probably have to be tweaked. I would hate to give up my right to change the radio channel, but maybe you could change the station while fully braked.