Google on Friday announced it will begin testing prototypes of its fully autonomous self-driving cars on public roads. The vehicles won't roam too far from their Mountain View, California, home -- but this latest phase of testing could be critical both for cultivating positive consumer perceptions, and influencing future legislation affecting the nascent sector.
Google has "a few" driverless car prototypes that will be testing this summer, said Chris Urmson, director of the Google Self-Driving Car Project. The prototypes are based on the familiar Smart Fortwo-like bubble designs that have become almost synonymous with self-driving cars.
Google previously had leaned heavily on modified Lexus RX450h SUVs to conduct its research into autonomous vehicle technologies. The SUVs have logged a close to a million miles of autonomous driving on test tracks and public roads since the start of the project, and they have been traveling roughly 10,000 miles each week, Urmson said.
Mountain View residents needn't worry about driverless cars flying around their neighborhoods at high speeds. The Google cars will operate at a "neighborhood-friendly" top speed of 25mph, and they'll have driver on board -- as well as a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal -- should manual operation be warranted, the company said.
In the coming years, Google wants to launch pilot programs so that it can learn more about how people would use driverless cars. For now, though, the company wants to gauge public perception of the vehicles and discover challenges unique to driverless cars.
Google's Challenges
In the next phase of testing and research, Google will investigate more of the scenarios the vehicles will face -- likely and unlikely -- once the public starts to adopt driverless cars.
As promising as the technology is, there are still some defining challenges that could prove or disprove its viability for the near term, according to
Kelley Blue Book analyst Akshay Anand.
While humans are prone to making errors associated with handling a vehicle, the artificial intelligence guiding autonomous cars could struggle with identifying critical elements of the roadways, according to Anand.
For example, how well will a robot be able to discern a rock from a grocery bag in the roadway?
"Google also has to constantly update each and every map, a tall task considering its autonomous cars haven't come close to scouring a majority of the roads out there," Anand told TechNewsWorld. "If a new red light isn't installed onto the map system, the autonomous car might simply run the red light. This is an issue that needs addressing."
Another challenge for Google will be securing and leveraging a supplier network, something OEMs have had years to establish, Anand pointed out.
Lacking a storied history of vehicle development, Google also will have to convince consumers of its automotive know-how. That could be less of a challenge for autonomous vehicles released in Detroit or Germany, or any of the automotive industry's other powerhouse regions.
Despite the obstacles its faces, Anand observed, Google does have one major element going for it: resources.
"Deep coffers help with ventures such as this, and that's something Google has on its side," he said. "Google also has the drive, as a company, to see something like this through, as we've seen with other projects, from phones to Internet to maps to Gmail. If any non-OEM company is going to succeed at this, it's likely Google."
