Google has revealed images and video of its updated driverless car – a significantly different vehicle to its predecessor.
The new car is considerably smaller and more compact, and only requires a single person to operate the emergency stop – as opposed to the two needed in the previous version.
Google's autonomous car project faces a number of hurdles before it becomes mainstream. But with four US states having now given Google driverless car testing licences – Michigan, Florida, California and Nevada – there is real governmental support for the technology.
One big problem faced by Google – along with Daimler, which is developing its own autonomous vehicle technologies – is that the USA's road infrastructure is underfunded and requires significant investment in order to enable safe autonomous car operation.
According to the Guardian, Nevada’s Department of Transportation, the state had been asked to "brighten up its lane striping and buttons". Such requests reveal how important a well-funded road network will be for the driverless car to operate safely.
But given the purported safety advantages of the autonomous car, the investment will be worth it. Nine out of 10 accidents are caused by human error, and even the 11 Google car accidents to date were all down to mistakes by people.
The cutesy child's-toy curves of the Google car may be obviously drawn to make its passengers feel safe, but there's no denying that such technologies could seriously reduce road injuries and fatalities.
Google's ultimate aim of creating “more courteous and more defensive drivers” than human beings is clear. “Imagine never losing someone to a traffic accident again,” said Chris Urmson, director of Google's car project last year.
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