Google Driverless Car

Google has been researching for more than a couple years, the possibility of not having to drive your car anymore. With laser, proximity and other kinds of sensors as eyes, and also with the help of GPS, Google Maps and Navigation, Google has been able to achieve driving without human interaction. Google currently has more than 300.000 miles of travel experience.

There are a lot of car accidents every year, most of them because of human errors. Google wants to reduce this rate by trusting more on a computer that cannot be distracted by other things to do. Google Driverless technology is being developed so that we can be sure that we will arrive to our destination when traveling. To insure this, Google has implemented a set of big infrared sensors on top of the car, which turns around to work as radar to detect whatever is around and so the car has the necessary information to know what action to take. Google has also included sets of other kinds of sensors such as proximity sensors on both sides of the front bumper as well as on the front of it. They have also included cameras to synchronize all the received information so that all that amount of information is completely accurate. For now they have a laptop in the passenger’s seat to monitor and see that every piece of information about the car and its surroundings is correct.

There have been a lot of tests made on this technology and it has been flawless so far. Although Google has developed specific routes to follow, the car itself has the capability to make its own decisions. This is possible because engineers make a layout of the routes before they put the car to drive. That layout allows the car to compare the information it receives with the layout to be able to differentiate between things that are supposed to be on the way, with random circumstances such as pedestrians or other cars. Based on the car’s “perspective” and the layout, the car makes the decisions. For instance, if the car is normally going on a normal street but perceives that a person is going to cross the street it will stop because the person will not be on the usual path.

There are currently 4 states that are making regulations in their law to allow the free transit of Google’s driverless cars. Probably in the upcoming years more states will join this cause allowing the commercialization of driverless cars. In a close future, having your car pick you up from work, picking up your kids from school while you are still at work, or simply sending it to park by itself right after you reached the front door of your destination will be normal and everyday habits that will make our lives even easier than today’s.