Self-drive car The cars have done thousands of miles, Google says

Engineers at Google have tested a self-driving car on the streets of California, the company has announced.

The cars use video cameras mounted on the roof, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic, software engineer Sebastian Thrun said.

They remain manned at all times by a trained driver ready to take control as well as by a software expert.

Google hopes the cars can eventually help reduce road traffic and cut the number of accidents.

In a posting on the company's official blog, Mr Thrun said the self-driven cars had so far covered 140,000 miles on the road.

They have crossed San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate bridge, negotiated the city's famous sloping streets, driven between Google offices, and made it around Lake Tahoe in one piece.
'Exciting future'
Traffic on the Golden Gate bridge (file pic) Nobody spotted the Google car crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Engineers told the New York Times that the forays onto the highways have been largely incident-free, apart from one bump when the car was reportedly hit from behind at a traffic light.

In his Google blog post, Mr Thrun - professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University - insisted that safety was the "first priority" in the project.

Routes are pre-planned, mapped first by real drivers, and local police are briefed in advance, he says.

But he pointed to figures from the World Health Organization which show that more than 1.2 million people are killed each year on the roads, and said that number could and should be reduced.

"We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half.

"While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting," he added.

Google has rapidly branched out from its previous core business of search in recent years.

The company already has significant interests in location services through its Google Maps and Google Street View offerings.

this sounds like the beginning of an "auto-pilot" like project for cars!

you would think after all these years they have this for airplanes, they would have this for cars!

If that works well, I guess the chinese will reverse engineering it then mass market it worldwide.

nah - airplanes are easy - you have 3 dimensions to keep them apart, and no solid objects in the way.  An aircraft in the air doesn't even have to "see".  
Except for approaching airports of course, which is tightly controlled by human beings.  Ground movements of aircraft is strictly manual.  

DARPA has been running a race for robot cars for a few years now - interesting to follow:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=pdZPqeB7EWY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2AcMnfzpNg&feature=related

they have to run offroad, dealing with physical obstacles, but don't have to deal with the complexities caused by idiot humans.

They dont even have to do that...
If google decides to make the parts in China, then all that same factory has to do, is start mass producing the products based on the training and blueprints they got from google.

Here is another USA engineering project that will only be successful in the USA (except NYC), Australia, NZ, and Canada markets because everywhere else in our chaotic world, the driving computer will be overwhelmed by by all those random events, ie, pedestrians crossing street outside the crosswalks whenever they want, bicycles - tuks tuks, etc going down the streets wrong way or riding sidewalks, cars ignoring lights, trucks deliberately driving close to scare you off the road, vendors on the pavement, beggars, window washers, unmarked road constructions, garbage piles, street lights not working, etc... Actually I can see India coming on top with the software and China with the hardware on this project.

On the other hand, I am old school and prefer my car to be noisy (no electric engine), interactive with manual shifting (no electric or automatic), and fun to drive as I weave through traffic (no autopilot for me).  Otherwise if I don't want to drive, I get someone else to drive me, ie friend, family, bus driver, taxi driver, or chauffeur.