Google has unveiled its self-driving car, which is capable of navigation with minimal user input. But, the company admitted that the car is not yet ready for public use, as it still has several challenges that it needs to overcome.
Recent tests of the car showed that it had safely driven 700,000 miles. The technology may be promising, but a researcher from the University of California Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies, Steven Shladover, warned that this number is misleading.
"The public seems to think that all of the technology issues are solved," Shladover said to MIT Technology Review. "But that is simply not the case."
Chris Urmson, director of the team developing the system of the Google self-driving car, revealed all of the technical glitches that have been encountered while testing the car. These issues will be reviewed and used to improve the technology.
The first issue identified was related to stop lights. The car is programmed to halt at stop lights included in the map uploaded in the system. But, the challenge is that new stop lights are not yet integrated in the map, and, therefore, when a new stop light appears, the car will not stop as it isn't aware of it. To address this problem, the Google engineers designed a feature that will allow the car to sense a stop light that is not on its map. However, the feature did not work in a four-way intersection.
Parking is also a problem for the self-driving car, as it hasn't practiced parking in multi-level parking areas yet.
It is also dangerous to ride the self-driving car when there is snow or rain because the vehicle wasn't tested in harsh weather conditions.
Lastly, pedestrian recognition is still under development. The car was unable to distinguish between a police officer and a civilian who was waving.
After presenting these challenges, which indicated that the car is not yet ready to drive in almost 99 percent of the United States area, Urmson assured that his team is working to get these issues addressed and hopes to launch the Google self-driving car in five years.
