The Google driverless car is a project by
Google
that involves developing technology for
driverless cars. The project is currently being led by Google
engineer
Sebastian Thrun, director
of
the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of
Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic
vehicle
Stanley which won the
2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its
US$2 million prize from the
United States Department of Defense.[2]
The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for
Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski
who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.[3]
Toyota
Prius modified to operate as a
Google driverless car driving a test course.[1
The U.S. state of
Nevada
passed a law on June 29, 2011 permitting the operation of driverless
cars in Nevada. Google had been lobbying for driverless car laws.[4][5][6]
The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for a
self-driven car in May 2012. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius
modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.[7]
Road testing
The project team has equipped a test fleet of at least ten vehicles,
consisting of six
Toyota Prius, an
Audi TT,
and three
Lexus RX450h,[8]
each accompanied in the driver's seat by one of a dozen drivers with
unblemished driving records and in the passenger seat by one of Google's
engineers. The car has traversed
San Francisco's
Lombard Street, famed for its steep
hairpin turns and through city traffic. The vehicles have driven
over the
Golden Gate Bridge and on the
Pacific Coast Highway, and have circled
Lake Tahoe.[3]
The system drives at the speed limit it has stored on its maps and
maintains its distance from other vehicles using its system of sensors.
The system provides an override that allows a human driver to take
control of the car by stepping on the brake or turning the wheel,
similar to
cruise control systems already found in many cars today.[2][9]
In August 2011, a human-controlled Google driverless car was involved
in the project's first crash near Google headquarters in
Mountain View, CA. Google has stated that the car was being driven
manually at the time of the accident.[10]
A second incident involved a Google driverless car being rear-ended
while stopped at a stoplight.[11]
On March 28, 2012, Google posted a YouTube video showing a Morgan
Hill, Calif. resident, Steve Mahan being taken on a ride in its
self-driving Toyota Prius. In the video, Mahan states "Ninety-five
percent of my vision is gone, I'm well past legally blind". In the
description of the YouTube video it reads that the route was carefully
programmed which takes him from his home to a drive-thru, to the dry
cleaners and back.[12][13]
In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over
300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500 000 km) accident-free, typically
have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting
to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.[14]
Three U.S. states have passed laws permitting driverless cars as of
September 2012: Nevada, Florida and California.[15]
Commercialization
While Google had no immediate plans to commercially develop the
system, the company hopes to develop a business which would market the
system and the data behind it to automobile manufacturers. An attorney
for the
California Department of Motor Vehicles raised concerns that "The
technology is ahead of the law in many areas," citing state laws that
"all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle".[2]
According to the
New York Times, policy makers and regulators have argued that
new laws will be required if driverless vehicles are to become a reality
because "the technology is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger
of outstripping existing law, some of which dates back to the era of
horse-drawn carriages".[6]
Google lobbied for two bills that made Nevada the first state where
driverless vehicles can be legally operated on public roads. The first
bill is an amendment to an electric vehicle bill that provides for the
licensing and testing of autonomous vehicles. The second bill will
provide an exemption from the ban on distracted driving to permit
occupants to send text messages while sitting behind the wheel. The two
bills came to a vote before the Nevada state legislature’s session ended
in June 2011. It has been speculated that Nevada was selected due to the
Las Vegas Auto Show and the
Consumer Electronics Show, and the high likelihood that Google will
present the first commercially viable product at either or both of these
events. Google executives, however, refused to state the precise reason
they chose Nevada to be the maiden state for the driverless car.[6]
Nevada passed a law in June 2011 concerning the operation of
driverless cars in Nevada,[4][5][6]
which went into effect on March 1, 2012.[7]
A Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology
was licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in May
2012. This was the first license issue in the United States for a
self-driven car.[7]
License plates issued in Nevada for
autonomous cars will have a red background and feature an
infinity symbol (∞) on the left side because, according
to the DMV Director, "...using the infinity symbol was the best way
to represent the 'car of the future'."
[9]
Nevada's regulations require a person behind the wheel and one in the
passenger’s seat during tests.
Google's driverless test cars have about $150,000 in equipment
including a $70,000
LIDAR
(laser radar) system.[16]
The range finder mounted on the top is a Velodyne 64-beam laser.[17]
See also
References
-
^
"The Test Driven Google Car". 2011-04-30.
Retrieved 2012-11-19.
- ^
a
b
c
John Markoff (2010-10-09).
"Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic".
The New York Times.
Retrieved 2010-10-11.
- ^
a
b
Sebastian Thrun (2010-10-09).
"What we're driving at". The Official Google Blog.
Retrieved 2010-10-11.
- ^
a
b
"Nevada enacts law authorizing autonomous (driverless) vehicles".
Green Car Congress. 2011-06-25.
Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^
a
b
Alex
Knapp (2011-06-22).
"Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars".
Forbes. Retrieved
2011-06-25.
- ^
a
b
c
d
John
Markoff (2011-05-10).
"Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars".
The New York Times.
Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^
a
b
c
Mary
Slosson (2012-05-08).
"Google gets first self-driven car license in Nevada".
Reuters. Retrieved
2012-05-09.
-
^
Damon Lavrinc (2012-04-16).
"Exclusive: Google Expands Its Autonomous Fleet With Hybrid
Lexus RX450h".
Wired. Retrieved
2012-04-24.
- ^
a
b
Cy Ryan
(2012-05-07).
"Nevada issues Google first license for self-driving car".
Las Vegas Sun.
Retrieved 2012-05-12.
-
^
"Human error blamed after Google's driverless car sparks
five-vehicle crash (archived by the Web Archive)". The
Star (Toronto). 2013-02-09.
-
^
JOHN
MARKOFF (Oct 9, 2010).
"Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic".
The New York Times.
Retrieved August 12, 2012].
-
^
Angela
Moscaritolo (March 29, 2012).
"Google's Self-Driving Car Takes Blind Man for a Ride".
PC Magazine.
Retrieved February 7, 2013.
-
^
Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan.
YouTube. Retrieved
February 7, 2013.
-
^
Self-driving Car Logs More Miles, googleblog
-
^
Muller, Joann.
"With Driverless Cars, Once Again It Is California Leading The
Way", Forbes.com, September 26, 2012
-
^
Alisa
Priddle.
"Google discloses costs of its driverless car tests".
-
^
"How Google's Self-Driving Car Works - IEEE Spectrum".
Spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved
February 26, 2013.
External links
-
Sebastian Thrun: Google's driverless car TED Video (March 2011)
-
Sebastian Thrun talks about driverless cars on Executive Talks
(May 2007).
-
Fasten Your Seatbelts: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions,
Forbes, January 22, 2013
-
Google's Trillion-Dollar Driverless Car -- Part 2: The Ripple
Effects, Forbes, January 24, 2013
-
Google's Trillion-Dollar Driverless Car -- Part 3: Sooner Than You
Think, Forbes, January 30, 2013
-
Google's Trillion-Dollar Driverless Car -- Part 4: How Google Wins,
Forbes, February 12, 2013