self-driving car

It was inevitable that Google would have to overcome a few obstacles to make its self-driving car a reality. Despite months of successful tests, government officials and the general public are still concerned about the safety risks posed by a vehicle without any manual override. As The Wall Street Journal reports, if Google wants to continue to test its cars on public roads in California, the company is going to have to abide by a new set of rules starting on September 16th. The new rules will require Google to give drivers the ability to take “immediate physical control” of the vehicle if necessary. More →

Self-driving cars, such as Google’s experimental vehicles, will be available to buyers in coming years, but the FBI is not particularly thrilled about their arrival, The Guardian has learned from a restricted report obtained under a public records requests. More →

Google’s self-driving car project may still be in its infancy, but one day the system it proposes will be available to consumers at large, who’ll be able to have their cars driven for them instead of having to actually do the deed themselves. While Google is further developing its driverless car, legislation also needs to be adapted to address potential legal problems of the future, such as when police give tickets to self-driving vehicles. More →

The last time Google’s self-driving car team checked in with us over a year ago, when it announced Google’s cars had driven more 300,000 accident-free miles. Today, the team announced in a blog post that the cars have now driven over 700,000 miles. The team has been focused on improving the self-driving cars in cities rather than on freeways, mostly testing this in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, California, and this focus on city driving has produced some impressive results. More →