Google unveils a self-driving car with no steering wheel, brakes or accelerator.
May 28, 2014
Google has been working on self-driving cars for quite a while now, but yesterday the company showed off the next step: a driverless car without steering wheel, accelerator and brakes. The vehicle, which the company has built from scratch, relies solely on built-in sensors and a software system.
Google says the car, which has virtually no blind spots, is capable of seeing what’s going on up to a distance of two football fields.
Although the car has experienced zero crashes during testing, it's still limited to a maximum speed of 25 MPH so that there's less destruction in case of a crash. As far as looks are concerned, opinions will vary, but according to a Google spokeswoman the final version will likely be much more refined.
Google started working on self-driving cars back in 2009. Since then the search giant's robo-cars have racked up 70,000 miles on the road. The company expects to have them ready for public use between 2017 and 2020.
Google is not the only company working on self-driving cars. Ford Motor has already unveiled a self-driving prototype car, while other automobile companies like Nissan, GM, Tesla and more are also working on driverless cars.
Well, I'm always skeptical about such innovations and their practicality in real life conditions with innumerable unforeseeable factors involved. Also, if you examine them more closely, there are usually snags they don't tell you about. So my first reaction is that Google has too much money and is looking for ways to lose some of it.
May 28, 2014
Google has been working on self-driving cars for quite a while now, but yesterday the company showed off the next step: a driverless car without steering wheel, accelerator and brakes. The vehicle, which the company has built from scratch, relies solely on built-in sensors and a software system.
Google says the car, which has virtually no blind spots, is capable of seeing what’s going on up to a distance of two football fields.
Although the car has experienced zero crashes during testing, it's still limited to a maximum speed of 25 MPH so that there's less destruction in case of a crash. As far as looks are concerned, opinions will vary, but according to a Google spokeswoman the final version will likely be much more refined.
Google started working on self-driving cars back in 2009. Since then the search giant's robo-cars have racked up 70,000 miles on the road. The company expects to have them ready for public use between 2017 and 2020.
Google is not the only company working on self-driving cars. Ford Motor has already unveiled a self-driving prototype car, while other automobile companies like Nissan, GM, Tesla and more are also working on driverless cars.
Well, I'm always skeptical about such innovations and their practicality in real life conditions with innumerable unforeseeable factors involved. Also, if you examine them more closely, there are usually snags they don't tell you about. So my first reaction is that Google has too much money and is looking for ways to lose some of it.