google-driverless-car

Google’s search engine is a major part of many people’s everyday lives. People use Google’s search engine for everything, from looking for cars to finding a popular recipe, the search engine provides resources for any query that a person has. Google dominates the search engine market, with 74% of users preferring Google to any other search engine.

And while Google is primarily known for their search engine and other internet-based services, the company has also been looking at other ways they can innovate products. One product that has gained particular attention is driverless cars. Other projects that Google has innovated are:

• Language Tools
• Google Alerts
• Web History
• Zagat
• Google Docs

Is The Future Autonomous Cars?

A common theme in famous science fiction stories such as ones written by Isaac Asimov, is that robots will one day gain their own autonomous intelligence. As far-fetched as that concept sounded at the time, Google’s driverless car project could be the beginning of the future. Google has been running this project for many years, and in 2005 it won two million dollars from the United States Department of Defense.

Due to Google’s long-standing support of driverless cars and the seal of approval from the United States Department of Defense, it would seem that Google’s driverless cars are gaining traction and will only continue to grow in relevance and efficiency.

Sebastian Thrun Runs The Project

As expected, the people who work on the driverless car project have impeccable credentials and a history of innovation. Sebastian Thrun runs the driverless car project and he is a Google engineer who also helped create the popular and useful Google Street View. He has a team that he works with at Stanford who consist of Google engineers.

Together they created “Stanley,” the first robotic driverless car. Stanley is a Volkswagen Touareg that can be run by an onboard computer and has been equipped with human decision making that was integrated into its algorithm. Stanley is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Robotic Rights

The robotic cars are also gaining more traction, because they are gaining more rights as drivers. Along with supporting the project long-term Google has also been campaigning for more robotic car laws. This translates to driverless cars being able to receive licenses and the rights to drive on the road just like any human. In June 2011 Nevada became the first state to take the large step forward in allowing driverless cars to drive on public roads that are otherwise used be vehicles driven by humans.

After Nevada, Florida then became the second state to allow driverless cars to drive on public roads. And in 2012 California became the third state to give driver rights to autonomous cars. The idea still seems shocking and dangerous to some people, the thought of sharing the road with a vehicle that has no human driver. But Google seems confident that the autonomous cars they have created have the same capacity for driving safely as human drivers. Michigan has also allowed driverless cars, but with the provision that a human has to be in the driver’s seat at all times.

Commercial Release

As of now, the driverless cars are not available for commercial release. The reality is that if these autonomous cars were to be released on a commercial level, the very foundation of driving laws would have to be re-examined to accommodate the concept of driverless cars. Since so many of the laws are based around the assumption that a human is driving the car then these laws would have to be re-examined.

However, the concept of “Robo-Taxis” seems more likely to happen in the future. Regarded as perhaps a new form of public transportation, driverless taxis might become a reality sooner than people might expect.