Google’s self-driving car drives ahead

Self-driving car is something that has been quite often shown in sci-fi movies. Google seems to turning that dream into reality, which has the potential to completely revolutionise the automobile industry.

The search engine giant has finally unveiled a driverless car prototype on 29 September.

“We’re building a prototype vehicle that's designed to take you where you want to go at the push of a button—no driving required” – Google

The car has sensors designed to detect objects as far as two football fields away in all directions, including pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles—or even fluttering plastic shopping bags and rogue birds. The software processes all the information to help the car safely navigate the road without getting tired or distracted.

Google says that self-driving cars can considerably reduce deaths from traffic accidents, which is more than 1.2 million globally every year with approximately 94% of accidents caused due to human error in the U.S.

Google and other automotive manufacturers and suppliers have said the technology to build driverless cars should be ready by 2020, IB Times UK reported. Project director Chris Urmson said the company was taking things steadily.

"This kind of technology – cars that drive themselves – is a different type of product than most of what Google does. It requires us to think a little differently about how we bring it to market and make sure we're very thoughtful about the bar we set before we let it out for people to use," he said.

The self-driven cars have already covered over 1 million miles and are currently out on the streets of Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas, the website says.