It’s certainly no secret that Google has been testing self-driving cars on the streets in California for years. Not only have the cars driven millions of miles, but they have also never been involved in an incident that was their fault. Now taking another giant step in transforming the way the world moves, Google has confirmed that they’re going to begin testing fully autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas. Previously, Google has had self-driving cars on the roads in Texas, but these new cars they are rolling out are fully autonomous. The question is: are they up to par for busy Austin, Texas?
HOW DOES GOOGLE KNOW THE CARS ARE PREPARED?
After years of expensive testing, and millions miles without incident, Google is confident in their cars’ ability to drive in the new environment of Austin, but some skeptics are not fully convinced that the cars are ready for this new terrain. Chris Urmson, a leader of the Google self-driving car project, assures residents that the cars are ready for whatever is thrown their way; “The car is equipped with sensory technology that creates a ‘security bubble’ around it and allows the vehicle to see its surroundings for up to football field away.”
WHY DID GOOGLE CHOOSE AUSTIN FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF SELF-DRIVING CARS?
The Google car can probably best be described as a piece of adaptive technology. Using new experiences the car learns how to react to different situations, and with the help of programmers, the car makes adjustments to the way it operates in order to be as close to perfect as possible. Austin offers the car a different experience from that of California, and from that it can expand its capabilities before it is ready to be unleashed on roads all over the world.
AFTER AUSTIN, TEXAS: A WORLD OF GOOGLE SELF-DRIVING CARS
California and Austin are both stepping stones on Google’s path to put self-driving cars on every road in the world. They have already demonstrated that self-driving cars could save countless lives by reducing the human error inherent in driving, and have the capability to continuously react to new and changing environments. Today Google self-driving cars are on the road in Austin, but tomorrow they could be driving by your house, on their mission to occupy every road on the planet.
