Google Self Driving Car

Google has been showing its self-driving robot cars in California to journalists around Mountain View, California. The whole exercise was to show how easily Google cars can navigate automatically and safely around city streets.

Sebastian Thrun, founder of Google X, said the company was thinking “very actively” about how self-driving cars could fit into the physical world. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has previously said the technology could be available by 2017.

Ron Medford, a former National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration official who is now director of safety for Google’s self-driving car project, said the public needs to understand that a self-driving car is “not something that you need to fear but something you need to embrace,” said.

“We do find that when people experience it, we get remarkable results and responses,” Medford said at the event at the Computer History Museum, during which Google explained technology that makes the cars work.

Google founders Larry Page and Brin tout the driverless car as revolutionary technology that could eventually, sharply reduce fatalities on the road. But it remains to be seen whether it’s ready for widespread use or not.

Lately, some of Google’s ambitious projects have not gone down well. Google Glass, a postage stamp-sized computer screen that attaches to eyeglass frames and is capable of recording video, has raised privacy concerns.

For self-driving cars, consumer acceptance and regulation may be as much issues as perfecting the technology. Google will is tight lipped about whether it will build its own cars or license the technology to automakers, nor will it provide a firm date for when the cars will be available.