For years, Google has toiled to produce the perfect self-driving car. It’s been on road tests for a long time. Now, the Google car is almost ready to make it’s public debut.
This summer, the Google self-driving car will make it’s debut road trip in Silicon Valley. Google’s central headquarters are there, in Mountain Valley. These robot cars can only go up to 25 mph. In case of emergency or mishap, feature drivers will be available to intervene. They’re now testing how the driving community interacts with and thinks of such a vehicle. The self-driving panel wants to face challenges to a self-driving car, like destination points, construction and other stoppages, and traffic issues. In all the tests that have taken place between Nevada and California, there’s been only eleven accidents and no injuries to anyone. All the crashes were minor. And there was a small incident involving a cyclist, where a driver had to take the wheel. Google engineers quickly corrected the problem, then added it to a list of issues to be studied. Please remember, when Google cars have these road test drive, they’re just that: test drives on live roads. This isn’t the time to pre-order a Google self-driving car. They’re forecasting another five years will pass before that happens.
But I think the Google car is ready for this next step. Yes, there has been some accidents along the way, but those have been few and far between. The main thing is nobody has been injured. So that must mean the majority of these tests went very well. These cars are going to be maximum 25 mph. It often takes a lot more speed before a serious accident can occur. The question is: how well will these real life road tests do? Google car is laying a lot on the line. If they mess up on the road too much, they can kiss their self-car dreams goodbye. If Google car was on the lot and ready to sale today, would you buy one?