So you know how in the future we're supposed to have self-driving cars? Well, Google has them, and has been testing them in actual traffic for a while now.
Google Cars Drive Themselves, In Traffic
WASHINGTON — Google Inc. is road-testing cars that steer, stop and start without a human driver, the company says.
The goal is to "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions" through ride sharing and "the new 'highway trains of tomorrow,'" project leader Sebastian Thrun wrote Saturday on Google's corporate blog.
The cars are never unmanned, Thrun wrote. He said a backup driver is always behind the wheel to monitor the software.
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The cars have traveled a total of 140,000 miles on major California roads without much human intervention, according to Google's corporate blog.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based technology giant has sent seven test cars a total of 1,000 miles without a human touching the controls at all, the New York Times reported. The newspaper published a report on the cars earlier Sunday.