Google announced Friday that it is taking its self-driving car project to the next level by bringing the vehicles to California's public roads.
Chris Urmson, director of the search giant's autonomous vehicle project, announced in a blog post that it will have prototypes driving around its Mountain View headquarters to bring the car closer to commercial availability.
Features of the self-driving car designed for when a human needs to take over control include a safety driver, removable steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedal, ABC News reported. Google made its latest model an electric vehicle that needs to be re-charged after every 80 miles of travel; air bags not included.
The cars have a 360-degree field of view so that they can learn how to keep drivers safe while drifting lanes, running red lights and engaging in other behaviors that could lead to accidents.
Urmson said in the post that the prototypes are designed to drive at a top speed of 25 miles per hour as a safety measure. He added that the cars will use the same software found in Google's self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs.
"We're looking forward to learning how the community receives and interacts with the vehicles, and to uncovering challenges that are unique to a fully self-driving vehicle," Urmson wrote.
Friday's announcement follows several days after Google revealed that its autonomous vehicles have been involved in 11 minor accidents, ABC News reported. The company said there was some light damage from the accidents, but no one was injured and the accidents weren't the fault of the cars.
Google's fleet of self-driving cars will consist of 20 prototypes that will drive a total of 10,000 miles per week.
