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A Lexus RX450h retrofitted by Google for its driverless car fleet
In 2014, public road testing of driverless cars was legal in California, Michigan, Florida and Nevada. In addition, a law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing autonomous motor vehicles.

The Google Self-Driving Car, commonly abbreviated as SDC, is a project by Google X that involves developing technology for autonomous cars, mainly electric cars. The software powering Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur.[1] Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car". The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[2] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.[3]

Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C. allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, after Google had been lobbying in that state for robotic car laws.[4][5] The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012, to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.[6] In April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads,[7] and California became the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google HQ in Mountain View.[8] In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth state to allow testing of driverless cars in public roads.[9] In July 2014, the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.[10]

In May 2014, Google presented a new concept for their driverless car that had neither a steering wheel nor pedals,[11] and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year that they planned to test on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in 2015.[12] Google plans to make these cars available to the public in 2020.[13]

Technology

The project team that has equipped a number of different types of cars with the self-driving equipment, including the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, and Lexus RX450h,[14] Google has also developed their own custom vehicle, which is assembled by Roush Enterprises and uses equipment from Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, and Continental.[15][16]

Google's robotic cars have about $150,000 in equipment including a $70,000 LIDAR system.[17] The range finder mounted on the top is a Velodyne 64-beam laser. This laser allows the vehicle to generate a detailed 3D map of its environment. The car then takes these generated maps and combines them with high-resolution maps of the world, producing different types of data models that allow it to drive itself.[18]

As of June 2014, the system works with a very high definition inch-precision map of the area the vehicle is expected to use, including how high the traffic lights are; in addition to on-board systems, some computation is performed on remote computer farms.[19]

Road testing

A Toyota Prius modified to operate as a Google driverless car, navigating a test course[20]

In 2012, the test group of vehicles included six Toyota Prius, an Audi TT, and three Lexus RX450h,[14] each accompanied in the driver's seat by one of a dozen drivers with unblemished driving records and in the passenger seat by one of Google's engineers. By May 2015, that fleet consisted solely of 23 Lexus SUVs.[21]

Google's vehicles have traversed San Francisco's Lombard Street, famed for its steep hairpin turns, and through city traffic. The vehicles have driven over the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe.[3] The system drives at the speed limit it has stored on its maps and maintains its distance from other vehicles using its system of sensors.[22] The system provides an override that allows a human driver to take control of the car by stepping on the brake or turning the wheel, similar to cruise control systems already found in many cars today.[2][23]

On March 28, 2012, Google posted a YouTube video showing Steve Mahan, a resident of Morgan Hill, California, being taken on a ride in Google's self-driving Toyota Prius. In the video, Mahan states "Ninety-five percent of my vision is gone, I'm well past legally blind". In the description of the YouTube video, it is noted that the carefully programmed route takes him from his home to a drive-through restaurant, then to the dry cleaning shop, and finally back home.[24][25]

In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500,000 km) accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.[26] Four U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars as of December 2013: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan.[27] A law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing "autonomous motor vehicles".[28][29]

In April 2014, the team announced that their vehicles have now logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.1 million km).[30] In late May, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, being 100% autonomous.[31]

In June 2015, the team announced that their vehicles have now driven over 1 million miles, stating that this was "the equivalent of 75 years of typical U.S. adult driving", and that in the process they had encountered 200,000 stop signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and 180 million other vehicles.[32] Google also announced its prototype vehicles were being road tested in Mountain View, California.[33] During testing, the prototypes' speed cannot exceed 25 mph and will have safety drivers aboard the entire time.

Traffic accidents

As of July 2015, Google's 23 self-driving cars have been involved in 14 minor traffic accidents on public roads,[21] but Google maintains that in all cases the vehicle itself was not at fault because the cars were either being manually driven or the driver of another vehicle was at fault.[34][35][36]

In June 2015, Google founder Sergey Brin confirmed that there had been 12 accidents as of that date, eight of which involved being rear-ended at a stop sign or traffic light, two in which the vehicle was side-swiped by another driver, one of which involved another driver rolling through a stop sign, and one where a Google employee was manually driving the car.[37]

In July 2015, three Google employees suffered minor injuries when the self-driving car they were riding in was rear-ended by a car whose driver failed to brake at a traffic light. This was the first time that a self-driving car collision resulted in injuries.[38]

Limitations

As of August 28, 2014 the latest prototype has not been tested in heavy rain or snow due to safety concerns.[39] Because the cars rely primarily on pre-programmed route data, they do not obey temporary traffic lights and, in some situations, revert to a slower "extra cautious" mode in complex unmapped intersections. The vehicle has difficulty identifying when objects, such as trash and light debris, are harmless, causing the vehicle to veer unnecessarily. Additionally, the lidar technology cannot spot some potholes or discern when humans, such as a police officer, are signaling the car to stop.[40] Google projects having these issues fixed by 2020.[41]

Commercialization

In 2012 Google founder Sergey Brin stated that Google Self-Driving car will be available for the general public in 2017,[42] and in 2014 this schedule was updated by project director Chris Urmson to indicate a possible release from 2017 to 2020.[43] Google has partnered with suppliers including Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, Continental, and Roush, and has contacted manufacturers including General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Daimler and Volkswagen.[16]

An attorney for the California Department of Motor Vehicles raised concerns that "The technology is ahead of the law in many areas," citing state laws that "all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle".[2] According to The New York Times, policy makers and regulators have argued that new laws will be required if driverless vehicles are to become a reality because "the technology is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger of outstripping existing law, some of which dates back to the era of horse-drawn carriages".[5]

Google lobbied for two bills that made Nevada the first state where autonomous vehicles can be legally operated on public roads. The first bill is an amendment to an electric vehicle bill that provides for the licensing and testing of autonomous vehicles. The second bill will provide an exemption from the ban on distracted driving to permit occupants to send text messages while sitting behind the wheel. The two bills came to a vote before the Nevada state legislature's session ended in June 2011. It has been speculated that Nevada was selected due to the Las Vegas Auto Show and the Consumer Electronics Show, and the high likelihood that Google will present the first commercially viable product at either or both of these events. Google executives, however, refused to state the precise reason they chose Nevada to be the maiden state for the autonomous car.[5]

Nevada passed a law in June 2011 concerning the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada,[4][5][44] which went into effect on March 1, 2012.[6] A Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology was licensed by the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in May 2012. This was the first license issue in the United States for a self-driven car.[6] License plates issued in Nevada for autonomous cars will have a red background and feature an infinity symbol (∞) on the left side because, according to the DMV Director, "...using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the 'car of the future'."[23] Nevada's regulations require a person behind the wheel and one in the passenger's seat during tests.

In August 2013, news reports surfaced about Robo-Taxi, a proposed driverless vehicle taxicab service from Google.[45] These reports re-appeared again in early 2014,[46] following the granting of a patent to Google for an advertising fee funded transportation service which included autonomous vehicles as a method of transport.[47] Paid Google consultant Larry Burns says self-driving, taxi-like vehicles "should be viewed as a new form of public transportation."[48]

See also

References

  1. ^ Fisher, Adam (September 18, 2013). "Inside Google's Quest To Popularize Self-Driving Cars". Popular Science. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  2. ^ a b c John Markoff (October 9, 2010). "Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic". The New York Times. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Sebastian Thrun (October 9, 2010). "What we're driving at". The Official Google Blog. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Alex Knapp (June 22, 2011). "Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars". Forbes. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d John Markoff (May 10, 2011). "Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2011. Cite error: The named reference "NYT0511" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c Mary Slosson (May 8, 2012). "Google gets first self-driven car license in Nevada". Reuters. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  7. ^ Ana Valdes (July 5, 2012). Florida Embraces Self-Driving Cars Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  8. ^ John Oram (9-27-2012). Governor Brown Signs California Driverless Car Law at Google HQ Retrieved March 31, 2013.
  9. ^ "New Law Allows Driverless Cars On Michigan Roads". CBS Detroit. 28 December 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  10. ^ CDA Press (July 8, 2014). Aye, robot: Cd'A City Council approves robot ordinance
  11. ^ Liz Gannes. "Google Introduces New Self Driving Car at the Code Conference - Re/code". Re/code.
  12. ^ "Google's 'goofy' new self-driving car a sign of things to come". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  13. ^ Thomas Halleck (15 January 2015). "Google Inc. Says Self-Driving Car Will Be Ready By 2020". International Business Times.
  14. ^ a b Damon Lavrinc (April 16, 2012). "Exclusive: Google Expands Its Autonomous Fleet With Hybrid Lexus RX450h". Wired. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  15. ^ "Crain's Detroit Business : Subscription Center". crainsdetroit.com.
  16. ^ a b "Google in talks with OEMs, suppliers to build self-driving cars". Automotive News.
  17. ^ NOAA (October 10, 2010). "What is LIDAR?". NOAA.
  18. ^ "How Google's Self-Driving Car Works - IEEE Spectrum". Spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  19. ^ "The Trick That Makes Google's Self-Driving Cars Work". The Atlantic. May 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
  20. ^ "The Test Driven Google Car". April 30, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  21. ^ a b Charlie Osborne. "Google's autonomous car injuries: Blame the human".
  22. ^ Sheikh, Azzam. "Ultrasonic Sensors on Rear Wheels", national.co.uk, December 14, 2014
  23. ^ a b Cy Ryan (May 7, 2012). "Nevada issues Google first license for self-driving car". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
  24. ^ Angela Moscaritolo (March 29, 2012). "Google's Self-Driving Car Takes Blind Man for a Ride". PC Magazine. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  25. ^ Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan. YouTube. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  26. ^ Self-driving Car Logs More Miles, googleblog
  27. ^ Muller, Joann. "With Driverless Cars, Once Again It Is California Leading The Way", Forbes.com, September 26, 2012
  28. ^ "Legislative Session: 83(R) Bill: HB 2932", Texas Legislature Online, May 30, 2013
  29. ^ Whittington, Mark. "Law Proposed in Texas to Require Licensed Driver in Self-Driving Vehicles", Yahoo! News, Fri, March 8, 2013
  30. ^ The latest chapter for the self-driving car: mastering city street driving, googleblog
  31. ^ A First Drive. YouTube. 27 May 2014.
  32. ^ https://plus.google.com/+SelfDrivingCar/posts/iMHEMH9crJb
  33. ^ Murphy, Mike. "Google’s self-driving cars are now on the streets of California", Quartz, June 25, 2015
  34. ^ Chris Urmson. "The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car". Medium.
  35. ^ JOHN MARKOFF (October 9, 2010). "Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  36. ^ "Human Driver Crashes Google's Self Driving Car". businessinsider.com. August 5, 2008. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
  37. ^ http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google-cars-20150603-story.html
  38. ^ VISHAL MATHUR (July 17, 2015). Government Technology http://www.govtech.com/transportation/Google-Autonomous-Car-Experiences-Another-Crash.html. Retrieved July 18, 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  39. ^ Joann Muller (March 13, 2013). "No Hands, No Feet: My Unnerving Ride In Google's Driverless Car".
  40. ^ Lee Gomes (August 28, 2014). "Hidden Obstacles for Google's Self-driving Car".
  41. ^ "Google Self-Driving Car Chief Wants Tech on the Market Within Five Years". ReCode. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  42. ^ Donna Tam (September 25, 2012). "Google's Sergey Brin: You'll ride in robot cars within 5 years". cnet.com. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  43. ^ Liz Gannes (May 13, 2014). "Here's What It's Like to Go for a Ride in Google's Robot Car". recode.net. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  44. ^ "Nevada enacts law authorizing autonomous (driverless) vehicles". Green Car Congress. June 25, 2011. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
  45. ^ Michelle Fitzsimmons (August 24, 2013). "Google may be crafting its own self-driving cars, tinkering with robo-taxis". techradar.com. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  46. ^ Billy Davies (January 24, 2014). "The future of urban transport: The self-driving car club". zodiacmedia.co.uk. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  47. ^ B1 US patent 8630897 B1, Luis Ricardo Prada Gomez; Andrew Timothy Szybalski Sebastian Thrun & Philip Nemec et al., "Transportation-aware physical advertising conversions", published 2014-01-14, assigned to Google Inc 
  48. ^ Jaffe, Eric (April 28, 2014). "The First Look at How Google's Self-Driving Car Handles City Streets". The Atlantic Cities. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
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