Google says its driverless cars are mastering California’s city streets and …

The company has said its goal is to get the technology to the public by 2017. To begin with, human drivers would be expected to take control if the computer fails. The promise is that, eventually, there would be no need for a driver. Passengers could read, daydream, sleep – or work – while the car drives

Then they realised that most cyclists don’t use standard
gestures – and still others weave down a road the wrong way.

Engineers have taught the software to predict the behaviour
of cyclists based on thousands of encounters during the approximately 10,000
miles (16,000 km) the cars have driven autonomously on city streets, Hohne
said.

The software projects a cyclist’s likely movements and plots
the car’s path accordingly – then reacts if something unexpected happens.

‘A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of
freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to
different rules of the road in a small area,’ Urmson wrote.

Before recent breakthroughs, Google had considered mapping
all the world’s stop signs.

Now the technology can read stop signs, including those held
in the hands of school crossing guards, Hohne added.

This is the view the car sees when its navigating an intersection. Initially, the car’s capabilities were fairly crude. A group of pedestrians on a street corner registered as a single person, for example. Now, the technology can distinguish individuals

A user, who is legally blind, sat behind the wheel during a recent test drive and showed off to the passengers that no hands were needed To date, Google’s cars have gone about 700,000 miles (1.1 million km) in self-driving mode

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GOOGLE’S SELF-DRIVING CARS

Mean streets: Google cars have driven about 700,000 accident-free miles (1.1 million km)  on motorways in ‘autonomous mode’. Google has been focusing on city driving for the past year.

To-do list: Google’s Lexus RX450H SUVs are retrofitted with lasers, radar and cameras rapidly learned how to handle thousands of urban driving situations.  Improvements are needed in merging and lane changes, turning right on red and handling bad weather.

Local tests: So far, the tech giant has focused on street driving in Mountain View, California. The state, along with, Nevada, Florida, Michigan  and Washington, D.C., have formally opened public streets to testing of self-driving cars.

The future is (almost) here: In 2012, Google co-founder Sergey Brin predicted that the public would be able to get hold of the technology within five years. This prediction has not been revised.

Google, the carmaker: While Google has enough money to invest in making cars, that likelihood is remote.  Industry experts believe more likely options include collaborating with major car makers or giving away the software, as Google did with its Android operating system.

While the car knows when to stop, when to start again is
still a challenge because the cars are programmed to drive defensively.

At a four-way stop, Google’s cars have been known to wait in
place as people driving in other directions edge out into the intersection.

The cars still need work on other predictably common tasks.
Among them, understanding the gestures that drivers give one another to signal
it’s fine to merge or change lanes, turning right on red and driving in rain or
fog.

‘You can count on one hand the number of years until people,
ordinary people, can experience this,’ company co-founder Sergey Brin said in 2012.

He made the remarks
at a ceremony where California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation legalising
the cars on public roads in the state.

To date, Google’s cars have gone about 700,000 miles (1.1
million km) in self-driving mode, the vast majority on motoways, the company
said.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is in the process
of writing regulations to implement that law. Nevada, Florida, Michigan and
Washington, D.C., also have written driverless car laws.

Google has not said how it plans to market the technology.
Options include collaborating with major carmakers or giving away the software,
as the company did with its Android operating system.

While Google has the balance sheet to invest in making cars,
that likelihood is remote.

Traditional automakers also are developing driverless cars.
Renault-Nissan chief exectuve Carlos Ghosn said he hopes to deliver a model to
the public by 2020.

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