Well, they weren’t exactly illegal before, but following behind Nevada and Florida, California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a bill that makes self-driving cars street legal in the Golden State.
The world of Minority Report is becoming closer to reality (without the whole driving-up-walls-of-skyscrapers thing) after Google released the safety record of their self-driving car: zero accidents after 300,000 miles of driving.
In fact, Google is allowing select employees to use the self-driving cars for their daily commute.
Using cameras, radars and range finders to detect obstacles and other vehicles, they’re hooked up to a huge server that Google had lying around in the back, collecting an insane amount of data over the road the car is driving on. Next up: We predict Google will be paying for re-paving the 405, because seriously, that road is a POS.
The car isn’t yet ready for public use, as obstacles like icy roads and unexpected construction zones are still on the to-do list.
But hey, maybe you’ll be able to text and drive soon, and thus will cease to be trying to kill everyone around you.
Question, Speed Racer:
Is Google’s self-driving car awesome, super awesome, or the harbinger of Skynet?