Earlier this year Google started to share information about their Self-Driving Car Project, an initiative to develop a driverless vehicle. After their initial reveal and some subsequent appearances, Google continued work on the project to bring together all of the different “prototypes” they have in development. Today they unveiled the results of that work, their first complete build of a self-driving vehicle.
As the team explained in a Google+ post, there have been a variety of systems and components to be developed and tested over the past several months. These include traditional automobile systems like steering and braking as well as “self-driving” components like the computers and sensors.
All of those systems have been combined into one vehicle now that Google is testing on their own dedicated test track. However, they indicate they hope to start hitting the streets of northern California in 2015 for more extensive testing. In case you are worried that you might run across one on the road that is not quite ready, Google still has safety drivers overseeing things and ready to take over manual control if necessary.
Anyone out there ready to get in line for a self-driving car?
source: +Google Self-Driving Car Project
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