Taking Technology to the next level: Google Self driving car

Taking Technology to the next level: Google Self driving car

Dream of Self-driving cars is coming alive as your favourite search provider is developing self-driving car technology. Google is building prototype vehicles that are designed to take you where you want to go at the push of a button—no driving required.

Coming up to the Why’s?

Regardless of one’s ability to drive, everyone could get around easily and safely.

Any sort of handicap or Aging wouldn’t hinder in their independence.

Time utilisation to do fruitful work instead of driving.

Accidents and casualty could be reduced dramatically, especially accidents which involve human error.

Now the How’s?

Self-driving cars uses Navigation, many sensors, cameras, radars and software’s.

Navigate through many complicated scenarios on city streets.

Sensors and software to sense objects like pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and more, and are designed to safely drive around them.

The car processes both map and sensor information to determine where it is in the world. Sensors help detect objects all around us. The software classifies objects based on their size, shape and movement pattern. The software predicts what all the objects around us might do next. The software then chooses a safe speed and trajectory for the car.




Google have been working on the project since 2009, including team members who had already dedicated years to the technology.

In 2009, it all started with the testing of self-driving technology with the Toyota Prius on freeways in California.


In 2012, Google began testing with the Lexus RX450h, and completed over 300,000 miles of testing on freeways.


Next, the focus shifted to city streets, which were much more complex than freeways.


Google unveiled an early construction of the prototype vehicle in 2014. It’s designed from the ground up to be fully self-driving.


Months of testing and iterating resulted in the first real build of the prototype vehicle in December 2014.


So Good So Far!

As of March 2016, Google had test driven their fleet of vehicles, in autonomous mode, a total of 1,498,214 mi (2,411,142 km) and are currently out on the streets of Mountain View, CA, Austin, TX, Kirkland, WA and Metro Phoenix, AZ.

The testing fleet includes both modified Lexus SUVs and new prototype vehicles .There are safety drivers aboard all vehicles for now.

Talking about the Hurdles

There were situations where manual intervention was required of the person behind the wheel and take control from the AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Google’s self-driving cars have been travelling the roads of America for six years, and during that time they’ve been involved in 14 collisions with other vehicles, including those when other drivers were at fault.

The number are still not bad compared to the number of accidents already happening.

As the evolution is still on, don’t expect to buy a self-driving car anytime soon. Google hasn’t committed to turning the self-driving prototype into a production car yet.

Most of us are all eyes to such project.

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