This is Google's first prototype of a self-driving car

Over the last few months we have not stopped hearing news about self-driving cars, a line of research that is very active and very promising for the future. Among the major companies behind these projects is Google, which has let us see some photos of its first self-driving car prototype and a video of its first users.

Google’s prototype has an electric motor, can reach a top speed of around 40 km/h, is designed for two seats and has neither a steering wheel nor pedals. All of those elements become unnecessary because they are replaced by a multitude of sensors and cameras, such as the ones we can see on the roof of the car, along with software and algorithms that make all the decisions. Its speed reaches around 40 km/h. What do you think?

Since it was unveiled, quite a few criticisms of Google’s prototype have been published. Some are reasonable because a lot of work remains to be done, while others, and this is a personal opinion, I feel completely miss the point and fail to appreciate what a prototype within an R&D&i project is.

I’m sure almost all of us agree that the car has a rather ugly design or that its interior is so spartan that many of the elements we are used to in our own cars are missing. However, that is the least of it, since what matters is the technology it incorporates, what it is capable of doing and the potential it has for the future. The rest are merely secondary issues that will be easy to fix once autonomous driving is good enough.

For now, Google is going to manufacture 100 prototypes like this one to continue development. These cars will need to find their place, for example in short journeys or for use by people who cannot drive, but the first steps have been taken and Google has already shown that it can create products we would almost not know how to live without… so we will see what they achieve in a few years.

[jwplayer file=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqSDWoAhvLU”]