The first ride in Google's driverless car

[renovation]

Detroit News auto writer Henry Payne poses with one of Google's self-driving cars in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 13, 2014

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2014 ... z31hCz26Qp

Mountain View, Calif. —The great thing about driving a driverless car is that texting is legal. So is checking the Web for news. And taking notes on a pad.

I did all three Tuesday morning while testing Google’s self-driving car on public roads here, near the company’s headquarters. The test was the first time Google has made its car available to the media.

After logging 700,000 test miles on their own, Google Self-Driving Car Project Director Chris Urmson and his team felt their fleet of autonomous Lexus 450h hybrid crossovers was ready for prime time. These guys are bullish on self-driving cars.



From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2014 ... z31hD99rU3

[b-man1]

his team felt their fleet of autonomous Lexus 450h hybrid crossovers was ready for prime time

lol...nothing like a fleet of ~$60K luxury SUVs for testing.

[EvilHorace]

I'm really hoping nothing can go wrong with those resulting in more legal action against Lexus.
If a self driving car gets involved in an accident, who's to blame? Certainly not the humans in the car who aren't driving it.

[normalicy]

Honestly, I'd love to get a self driving car for the long road trips... or if I had a long commute to work.

[FlyingPenguin]

Ditto.

[EvilHorace]

Yep, for longer road trips they'd be great. I don't like driving long trips and especially at night.

I wonder how they can react to animals like deer?

My wife wants one as she hates to drive. If they're affordable, I think they'll be very popular.