Google Self-Driving Car gearing up for public road tests
General developments in the automotive industry are being governed by several concurrent trends that is set to radically transform the motoring experience for coming generations. At varying degrees, car makers are pushing advancements in fuel efficiency, powertrain electrification, safety, and autonomous driving.
We may not realize it today but autonomous driving is already here, albeit in bits and pieces, and the car still requires some form of manual input from the driver. Technologies such as active cruise control (some with queue assist), autonomous emergency braking, and active park assist all function to automate some aspects of the driving process.
The reality of autonomous driving is perhaps closer than we think. Just earlier this month, Audi sent a bunch of journalists on their merry way from California to Las Vegas in an entirely self-piloting A7 Sportback. In our own experience, versions of the Infiniti Q50 we tested last year with the new steer-by-wire system and its the full works of driving aid proved remarkably capable in taking care of itself in dense traffic – there were a few occasions which the car brought itself to a complete stop in response to traffic with no driver input whatsoever.
Several companies are working on autonomous driving systems as well at varying degrees of progress, and among them is none other than Google, which announced its Google Self-Driving Car Project last May and set about working on it in typical Google eccentricity. The vehicle being conceptualized is developed with a clean slate approach and is designed from the onset to be driven fully autonomously – there are no manual overrides. Guidance is entirely by sensor and software.
Because Google has no experience in actually building a car, the technological giant has partnered with the likes of Roush, RCO, ZF Lenksysteme, Continental Automotive, Bosch, FRIMO, LG, Prefix, and many other global automotive suppliers, tapping on their collective expertise to accelerate Google’s first attempt at developing an automobile, a task that is tricky and complicated at the best of times, at a rate faster than many thought possible.
Chris Urmson, Director of the Google Self-Driving Car Project noted that,
