Google builds self-driving cars, which come without a steering wheel
Google last night announced that it has built a prototype of a self-driving vehicle, and is to start manufacturing its own cars, rather than continuing to modify its fleet of Lexus and Honda vehicles.
According to a post on the company’s blog, the new cars won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal, because “they don’t need them”.
“Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.”
Google said that the new design, which has a bubble shape, comes with sensors that remove blind spots, and can detect objects more than two football fields away in all directions.
The first vehicles have had their speed “capped” at 25mph.
The search giant added that it is planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and late summer its safety drivers will start testing early versions of the vehicles that have manual controls.
“If all goes well, we’d like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years. We’re going to learn a lot from this experience, and if the technology develops as we hope, we’ll work with partners to bring this technology into the world safely.”
The cars have been designed “for learning, not luxury”, so the interior comprises two seats, space for passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop and a screen showing the car’s route.