Google self driving car

Google self-driving car is any in a range of autonomous cars, developed by Google X as part of its project to develop technology for mainly electric cars. The software installed in Google's cars is named Google Chauffeur.^[1] Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car". The project was formerly led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of theStanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.^[2] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.^[3]

Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C. allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, after Google had been lobbying in that state for robotic car laws.^[4][5] The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehiclesissued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012, to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology.^[6] In April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads,^[7] andCalifornia became the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google Headquarters in Mountain View.^[8] In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth state to allow testing of driverless cars on public roads.^[9] In July 2014, the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.^[10]

In May 2014, Google presented a new concept for their driverless car that had neither a steering wheel nor pedals,^[11] and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year that they planned to test on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in 2015.^[12] Google plans to make these cars available to the public in 2020