Google’s self-driving cars have been undergoing extensive testing for the day when they’re eventually unleashed on the roads of the world. The next hurdle for the company is making sure that a vehicle is able to navigate a city street, a place that is prone to unpredictability at the best of times, without causing or participating in an accident.
Google has, in a blog post, outlined how their vehicles will function on the roads and has also released a video that gives a visual representation of the software in the cars themselves. We’re able to see how a self-driving car might recognise and then negotiate a hazard while out in the wide world.
The company said that “We’ve improved our software so it can detect hundreds of distinct objects simultaneously—pedestrians, buses, a stop sign held up by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making gestures that indicate a possible turn. A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can’t—and it never gets tired or distracted.” However, they have also acknowledged that they still have a way to go before putting their cars on the road outside of Mountain View, California.