Google’s experiments in autonomous driving, now in their fifth year, are progressively looking less like science fiction and more like the car of tomorrow. The next phase of the research project? moving the technology out of specially configured test vehicles and into ordinary cars and trucks.
Google executives are in regular talks with numerous automakers, and they’re thinking hard about the best way to deliver a product that makes driving safer and traffic jams less tedious. Among others, the safety imperative is particularly compelling; over 30,000 people die in the U.S. alone each year from car crashes mostly caused by human error. Ron Medford, second in command at NHTSA before becoming director of safety for the self-driving cars project in 2012, said he expects autonomous cars to be one of the three biggest lifesavers in the history of auto safety, along with seat belts and electronic stability control.
After last week’s media briefing, Google drove dozens of journalists on 25-minute loops of Mountain View, during which the trial car flawlessly followed a preset route with virtually no need for human intervention.
