Google self-driving software named Google Chauffeur allows you to take your feet off the pedals, puts your hands in your lap, and have the car’s computer driving you around. Self-driving cars have been around since the 1970s with the Grand Challenge alumni self-driving laboratories worldwide. Google is not the only one that’s developing the self-drive technology, but Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, Volvo, BMW, Nissan are as well.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to put standards and mandates for car-borne beacons that will broadcast location information to other vehicles on the road. The beacons will warn you and drivers when a collision may occur such as the driver ahead braking too hard or another vehicle swerves into traffic. Manufacturers uses this information to create a program automated response to these types of situation.
Google’s self-driving-car project has been developing for the better part of a decade and has a small fleet of driverless cars on the public roads. Google test vehicles ferry’s their employees back and forth to and from work. Google made reports that collectively the cars have driven more than 500,000 miles without crashing. Last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed California’s self-driving-car bill into law so that self-driving cars will be parked on a street near you.
Google wants to put the car in the hands of ordinary drivers to test the user experience. Their goal is to accomplish a not perfect, not crash-proof, but safer than a competent human driver experience. Google Chauffeur on average will travel 36,000 miles before making any mistake severe enough to require driver intervention. The software performs hundreds of diagnostics checks every second and glitches may occur every 300 miles. For any errors worrisome that require human hands back on the wheel, Google has trained in extreme driving techniques such as emergency braking, high-speed lane changes, and preventing and maneuvering through uncontrolled slides.
So far, Google Chauffeur has a clean driving record and there has only been one reported accident that can be blamed on Google. A self-driving car rear-ended another vehicle with enough force to push it forward and impact another two cars. Otherwise, Chauffeur did not have any major accident or incidents and is improving day by day. In 2020, you will be seeing a lot of self-driving cars from Google and plenty of the manufactures such as Nissan, Tesla, Volvo, Dodge, Mercedes, and much more.