The day when autonomous cars will be able to transport us to our destinations without the need to touch the steering or pedals will probably soon be a reality. This fact is evident from the dramatic technological advancements of Google’s autonomous cars.
On site dedicated to the Google’s self-driving car, the company claims to be on “the last chapter” of the development of the autonomous car. A final step which consists of making Google Car to drive itself in the middle of traffic, in order to prepare the onboard computers, so to it responds to all the contingencies faced by motorists in real driving conditions.
The pedestrian crossing the road, the cyclist who reaches makes a hand gesture and then changes his mind, passing through the road blocked by the work, the computer must know how to react in every situation. If you believe in this video posted by Google, the results are more than promising.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk3oc1Hr62g[/youtube]
“We still have to resolve many problems in the streets of Mountain View (where the Google headquarters is located and where cars are tested), before we go to another city,” says begins Chris Urmson, director of project manager at Google, “but during the last two years we are now able to manage thousands of situations that the autonomous car can face”.
“Our vehicles have traveled nearly 700,000 miles (more than one million kilometers) in an autonomous manner, and with each new passing day, we are more than optimistic to achieve of goal of making a vehicle that can operate without the need of human intervention,” Chris Urmson adds.