Software giant Google is reaching out beyond its core business of search, and online apps.SEE ALSO: The New York Times Google cars drive themselves, in trafficOn its official blog, the US company has revealed that it's working on a technology that al
Software giant Google is reaching out beyond its core business of search, and online apps.
SEE ALSO: The New York Times Google cars drive themselves, in traffic
On its official blog, the US company has revealed that it's working on a technology that allows cars to self-drive, no humans required.
"Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead," wrote Google software engineer Sebastian Thrun in a post today.
"This is all made possible by Google’s data centres, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain."
Although it's only just going public with the initiative, Google says its self-driven cars have already clocked up 140,000 miles in test drives (a human driver has always been on hand in case the technology goes haywire).
Internet wags were quick to weigh in, with one asking "Will the Google self drive car take you directly where you want to go or past a whole lot of companies that advertise on Google?"
Others asked if programmers involved with riotous failure Google Wave were onboard with the self-drive cars.
Jokes aside, driver-less Google cars - six Toyota Priuses and one Audi TT - have navigated San Francisco's curvy Lombard Street, Los Angeles' crowded Hollywood Boulevard and the cliff-hugging Pacific Coast Highway, Mr Thrun said, with computerised systems handling steering, and all other functions.
The company says self-driven cars can take more exact, fuel-efficient routes, and should lead to a reduction in the road toll.
What next, Google investing in a New Zealand monorail company? Oh, wait ...
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