Google's new prototype of self-driven cars is going to make drunk and distracted driving a thing of the past as it is fully capable of driving passengers on its own.
Never learnt how to drive, or just too drunk to take the wheel? Google will soon have a fix to ferry you around to the destination of your choice. While it is still a prototype, Google's new self-driving car is a revolution in the automobile industry. The autonomous car that is being tested by Google is free of the most important and standard controls found in any car, steering wheel, gas pedals and brakes. So if a person wants to hit the road, he/she just has to map the destination and sit back and relax.
People earlier just imagined such a concept but now it is almost a reality. Google revealed the new concept Tuesday at the Code Conference and later confirmed it in an official blog post detailing its futuristic ideas about the driverless technology.
Four years of experiments with self-driving technology has made Google confident enough to try something as innovative as its new controls-free autonomous car. So far, the internet giant has only used modified Toyota Prius cars and Lexus SUVs for testing its driverless technology. The company has achieved a milestone of more than 700,000 miles of auto-piloted navigations and passed the most complex situations that drivers face on a daily basis. The car's success was recently defined by the company's decision to hit the busy streets of Mountain View, California, for testing purposes after improving its sensors for better safety on roads.
Explaining the new concept of driverless cars without steering wheels, pedals for brakes and gas, Google said in its blog: "They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections. And we've capped the speed of these first vehicles at 25 mph. On the inside, we've designed for learning, not luxury, so we're light on creature comforts, but we'll have two seats (with seat belts), a space for passengers' belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a screen that shows the route-and that's about it."
Google is not the only company fighting for dominance in the new space. Other car makers such as Nissan and GM are expected to launch self-driving cars on road by 2020. Tesla, however, has revealed an earlier timeframe for its self-driving systems, which will take up 90 percent of driving capabilities, by 2016. Ford is also testing its own self-driving prototype.
The video demonstrating the new driverless prototype by Google is embedded below from YouTube.
