While Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson is getting closer to outer space, Google is sticking to the pavement with its latest experiment. The search giant is looking at new ways to help people use technology — with robotic cars.
Indeed, Google is on a self-proclaimed quest to reduce traffic accidents, save time, and slash carbon emissions. The problem is serious. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in traffic accidents. Google believes it has the potential to cut that number in half, and proposes to change the way we use cars.
Google has developed a technology that drives a car. Beyond saving lives, the ultimate goal is to create “highway trains of tomorrow” that cut energy consumption and allow vehicles to carry more people on major roads. This, Google thinks, could also help people make better use of the average 52 minutes spent commuting to and from work every day.
Robotic Cars in Action
Google has already revved up the experiment. Manned by trained operators, its automated cars recently drove from Google’s Mountain View, Calif., campus to its Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. These robotic cars have even driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. Google has logged more than 140,000 miles in its robotics research experiment.
“Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder to ‘see’ other traffic, as well as detailed maps — which we collect using manually driven vehicles — to navigate the road ahead,” Google Distinguished Software Engineer Sebastian Thrun wrote in the company’s blog. “This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their…