Google's self-driving cars have already covered 3.25 million kilometres

Autonomous driving remains in the spotlight, and manufacturers are thinking about how to improve current driver-assistance systems so that driving is completely safe. Tesla is advancing by leaps and bounds, despite the recent accidents on record, but Google is not falling behind. The telecommunications giant has been testing its self-driving cars for several years and, although they have also received several criticisms for their problems, it is happy with the results of the tests.

Google’s first self-driving cars began driving in 2009, when the first tests of these vehicles began on the streets of some American cities. Since that year, Google has recorded a figure close to 40,500 kilometres driven per week by all of these vehicles combined.

Google’s self-driving car focuses more on city driving. That figure may seem a little ridiculous when compared with the 161 million kilometres covered by Tesla cars, but according to Google, in that case the Autopilot is used on motorways, whereas Google’s cars have specialised in autonomous driving in the city, which is more delicate and requires a different way of executing each manoeuvre.

For example, Google proudly points out that its autonomous driving system is capable of predicting the unpredictable movements of a cyclist riding ahead, reacting in the most precise and safe way. According to them, these kinds of social interactions are the most complex for self-driving cars to manage, so that is where they are focusing their greatest attention.

Google’s intention is to continue along this line in its tests, and it wants its cars to be able to react smoothly on city streets, rather than taking control during long highway journeys. This is a difference from Tesla, for example, which could make the difference between one company and the other in the near future, when cars may operate smoothly with this type of driving, which does not require the active presence of a human driver and does so as safely as possible.

Source | Carscoops