United States Internet heavyweight Google
said at the weekend it was examining robot cars
that cruise totally on themselve, and already have drove around California.
"One of the crucial troubles we're working on today is car
safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free
up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by
basically changing car use," Sebastian Thrun, a
Google engineer said on a company blog posting.
"So we have produced technology for cars that able to
drive themselves. Our machine-controlled cars, manned by
skilled operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our
Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They've driven down Lombard
Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, sailed
the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe," he
added.
"All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles
(225,302 km). We believe this is a first in robotics research."
The engineer explained that in the experimental enterprise "automated cars use
video cameras, radar detectors and a laser range spotter to
'view' other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we
collect using manually driven cars) to voyage
the road ahead."
But the vehicles are not totally unmanned for safety reasons;
safety drivers are behind the wheel in case they are wanted,
Thrun's posting said.
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