Google Testing Self Driving Cars

Google has been testing self driving cars lately in California. The cars are never totally unmanned though there is always a back up driver in the car who monitors the software and is ready to take over at any time. The cars have been tested on many roads and even hard to navigate curvy roads and even on the cliff-hugging Pacific Coast Highway. Google says the want to 'help prevent traffic' accidents, increase the efficiency of cars and free up people's time. The cars use video camera, radar sensors and a laser range finder to detect other traffic and navigate cars using detailed maps which are created from information collected by manual cars. The cars have logged a lot of mileage, so far the cars have logged over 225, 308 kilometers (140, 000 miles) and an impressive 1, 600 kilometers (994 miles) without a human touching the controls. Only one accident has occurred with the self driven cars and it was due to a car being rear-ended. This is definitely very exciting news. Similar technologies have also recently been appearing in Lexus cars. The technology in these cars automatically stops the car if the vehicle in front of you abruptly stops but this is nothing like the self driving cars Google is testing. Only time will tell if this technology will become commercially available.