Google has started building its own self-driving car that it hopes to begin testing as early as this year.<\/p>\n
“They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work,” the company said in a blog post Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
For Google, the car marks a shift away from adapting vehicles made by others in its quest to pioneer individual transport that needs only a stop-and-go function.<\/p>\n
“It was inspiring to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask, ‘What should be different about this kind of vehicle?'” the post said.<\/p>\n
Google said it plans to build about 100 prototype vehicles.<\/p>\n
Later this year its drivers will start testing early versions with manual controls, Google said.<\/p>\n
“If all goes well, we’d like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years,” the company said.<\/p>\n
The top speed of the prototypes will be 25 mph.<\/p>\n
The San Jose Mercury News called the car a “rounded, almost cuddly-looking two-seater.”<\/p>\n
The vehicles are battery powered and boast safety features like a flexible windshield and foamlike material covering the front, the paper said.<\/p>\n
“We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin told a conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. He announced the prototypes there Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Until now Google has been re-fitting Lexus and Honda cars to work as self-driving ones.<\/p>\n
Google gives a glimpse into the future of self-driving cars<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n