Google says the first completed prototype of its self-driving car is ready to be road tested.
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| The car does not have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal or brake pedal, and relies on software and sensors instead. |
Google says the first completed prototype of its self-driving car is ready to be road tested.
The company made the announcement in a post on Google's social networking site, alongside a picture of a white, rounded bug-looking vehicle.
"We're going to be spending the holidays zipping around our test track, and we hope to see you on the streets of Northern California in the new year," the internet titan's autonomous car team said in a post at Google+ social network.
"We've been working on different prototypes-of-prototypes, each designed to test different systems of a self-driving car-for example, the typical car parts like steering and braking, as well as the self-driving parts like the computer and sensors," Google said.
"We've now put all those systems together in this fully functional vehicle-our first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving."
The car does not have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal or brake pedal, and relies on software and sensors instead.
Technical specifics about the prototype were not disclosed.
Earlier this year, Google said the top speed of the battery-powered prototypes would be 40 kilometres per hour and they would be designed for utility, not luxury.
For Google, the car marks a shift away from adapting vehicles made by others in its quest to pioneer individual transport that needs only a stop-and-go function.
Several automakers have been working on autonomous or semi-autonomous features for cars, such as self-parking, but no fully autonomous car has come to market.
"Self-driving cars, if widely adopted, stand to be as transformative to consumer life as the smartphone," said Mike Hudson, who tracks the automotive industry for eMarketer.
(Source: AFP)
