Google self-driving car

Google is at it again. In a show of its willingness to experiment with technologies that won’t pay off for years to come, the search giant is now taking a stab at cars that can drive itself in highway or city traffic.

Anyone driving on California’s route 101 between San Francisco and Palo Alto in the last eight months would have spotted a small fleet of Prius’ with a man seemingly sitting idle on the wheel. That is clearly not the case. It’s Google’s software and hardware hard at work.

A few photos and video of the Google self-driving car iare now available online; we have reproduced them here for you.

Using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver, Google is hoping these cars will be the way of the future. There is of course a human driver to take control if any oops! moments are about to occur. There is also a Google techie looking after the navigation and software systems from the passenger seat.

Photo: The self-driving Toyota Prius Google car

Google’s fleet of seven Prius’ and one Audi TT have driven some 1,000 miles without human control and more than 140,000 miles with occasional human intervention. One of these Prius’ could even drive itself up and down San Francisco’s (in)famous Lombard Street, one of the steepest and bendiest streets in the United States. The only accident so far, engineers say, was when one such ‘driverless’ car was slammed from the back while waiting at a red light.