Google is turning a new page on its self-driving car with new sensors that can detect hundreds of distinct objects at the same time, making it suitable for busy city roads.
Google, the innovation hub for gadgets like computer eye-wear and self-driving cars, is making its autonomous vehicles more advanced than before. The Google cars have been driving the rural roadways of California but the Internet search giant is taking its technology to the city roads, a significant step toward making its controversial self-driving project available to the public. In the latest official blog post, Monday, Google said the company has logged thousands of miles on the busy streets of Mountain View, California, and has updated its system to ensure better safety on roads.
A car owner is well aware of the extreme driving conditions on a busy day in a city. Unexpected road blocks, slow-moving traffic, long red lights and much more contributes to define the daily commutation on city roads. These daily experiences can eventually cause drivers to get irate and tired, which results in so-called "road rage." What if you can just sit and read your newspaper or prepare for your meeting on the way to work and let the car do the hardship of driving you. As good as it sounds; Google is one more step closer to bringing the most-awaited self-driving technology in cars to the public.
"A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area," Chris Urmson, head of Self-Driving Car Project at Google, wrote in the company's official blog, Monday. "We've improved our software so it can detect hundreds of distinct objects simultaneously-pedestrians, buses, a stop sign held up by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making gestures that indicate a possible turn. A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can't-and it never gets tired or distracted."
Google's self-driving project was first legalized for street testing in Nevada back in 2011 and with the continued efforts of engineers, self-driving cars can be the future of the automobile industry. The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant is currently testing its autonomous driving tech in three other states including Florida, California and Michigan. The latest development is found in the company's hometown Mountain View, where the Google cars are being tested for city use.
While the upgraded system in the Google cars to stay sharp-eyed on roads at all times is a major breakthrough, Urmson said the company has a lot to work on before deploying the technology commercially, including teaching the cars to master driving in its hometown before testing in other cities.
Google's autonomous cars have covered nearly 700,000 miles and more than 10,000 of it has been run on city streets, Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne said, NBC reports. A video by Google also demonstrates how a Google car tackles different situations in the city road conditions and independently decides on slowing down, stopping or taking a diversion upon detecting any obstacles in its way.
