Mountain View, California — Internet search engine giant Google Inc., has been tinkering with engines of another kind and come up with some futuristic results — confirmed over the weekend that it is road-testing its fleet of autonomous cars across the San Francisco Bay Area that steers, stops and starts without a human driver, using artificial intelligence.
Google, in a posting on its official blog, said it has devised the technology and been busy testing a fully automated car that would take the controls out of the hands of distracted drivers, and is hoping the experiment will make them free to text, eat or apply makeup to their heart’s content.
“Our objective is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use,” and “the new ‘highway trains of tomorrow,'” said project leader Sebastian Thrun, on the company blog.
Seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 1,40,000 miles with only occasional human control, The New York Times reported. The automated cars are equipped with video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps to navigate the road ahead.
However, the cars are never rolled out without someone in the vehicle ready to take control, Thrun wrote in a blog. He said a backup driver is always behind the wheel to monitor the software.
The move is the latest indication that the search engine giant is determined to change how cars are driven. In a speech on 29 September, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said “your car should drive itself. It just makes sense.”
“It is a bug that cars were invented before computers,” Schmidt said.
The futuristic autos have already been tested on the heavily trafficked California roadways — including highways, bridges and busy city streets. They have even navigated San Franciso’s famed Lombard Street, a tourist favorite known as the nation’s most dramatically winding address.
One of Google’s self-driving Toyota Priuses
The car project of Google uses artificial intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimics the decisions made by a human driver. Google said it hopes its self-driving cars might one day cut by half the more than 1 million traffic fatalities suffered each year.
For those ready to dispense their hard-earned cash for one of the first self driving autos, Google said the project “is very much in the experimental stage” providing only “a glimpse” of what transportation might look like in the future.
Nevertheless, the technology equipped by the vehicles does allow them to create a 360-degree view of their surroundings for quickly mapping out any changes that need to be made to a given course. Lasers mounted at various points around the vehicle keep track of road markers as they pass by, what is directly in front of the vehicle for a fairly long range, and what is surrounding the vehicle at any particular moment. Computers quickly analyze the collected data and spit information back out to the car’s driving system, which makes corrections to the car’s trajectory as appropriate.
Google is using six Priuses and an Audi TT in the project. For now, it remains to be seen whether Google investors, who have been concerned by the company’s spending, will applaud its automotive aspirations. The company missed Wall Street’s earnings estimates in the second quarter and is due to report third quarter results later this week.
Watch the driver-less car in action!