Developing technology for autonomous cars, Google began the project for a Self-Driving Car in 2005 after creator, Sebastian Thrun, created a robotic vehicle for the DARPA Grand Challenge, which eventually won (36). With four states already legalizing Self-Driving Cars, Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan, are set to become the first states to utilize Self-Driving Cars, which have been reported release to the public in 2017 (49).
On May 18, 2014, the first prototype of the Self-Driving Car was released that had no steering wheel or pedals attached (some cars still had steering wheels that functioned without the driver) (28). Using LiDR technology and a remote sensing method, each Self-Driving Car is equipped with $220,000 worth of technology (52). Mounted on top of each Self-Driving Car is a Velodyne 64-beam laser that allows each vehicle to create a 3D map of its environment (24). This map models to the car how fast to move, when to stop, and where to turn so that it can maneuver safely in traffic without any accidents. As of April 2014, Google has officially logged over 700,00 miles on their Self-Driving Car (51). However, even with this tremendous success, there have been two reported incidents with Self-Driving Cars that, while having received tremendous amounts of criticism, have both happened when the cars were being manually operated (36, 54). In addition to these incidents, Self-Driving cars do have some significant limitations. For example, the most recent prototype is unable to handle snowy conditions, goes at sluggish speeds when approaching an unmarked 4-way intersection, and tends to accidentally veer the car off the road for small pieces of debris in the road. These limitations are estimated to be fixed by 2020 (17). Notwithstanding these restraints, Google’s Self-Driving Cars are fast-approaching commercialization and consumers who jumped on most recent Google inventions such as Google Glass, are sure to be just as enthusiastic about the implementation of Self-Driving Cars on America’s motorway.
The Google Empire 