Google has developed a car that drives itself

It sounds like an internet conspiracy or another of Google’s April Fool’s Day pranks: but it isn’t. Google has been road-testing its new cars that drive themselves in and around California, but why would a company that specialises in free online tools want to make a car?

It’s not as odd as it might sound. Google launched a free sat nav service in April and has an online mapping system.

This car wouldn’t be Google’s first physical product since it launched its smartphone, the Nexus One, in January.

But this would be a massive jump in industry for the company, although it claims it would be beneficial for everyone.

During testing only one accident occurred – and that was a human driver who went into the back of a Google Car.

The Google Car can achieve better fuel consumption than a human driver, as it will run on an algorithm. There will be no speeding, as the car will know the limit on every road. And finally the cars’ reaction time is instant; because they can see 360 degrees at all time they can avoid other cars and react much quicker than humans.

So far I’m sold on the idea. But Google’s blog adds to the plus points of the vehicle by saying that people can use their travel time to watch movies or TV, or just get some work done – think about how much more productive you could be.

The blog post ends on an optimistic projection that the cars should be commercially available in eight years.

They allude to this time being shortened with changes in driving laws – all current USA laws assume a human driver is present behind the wheel.

Also other legal issues are slowing progress as it is unknown how reliable automated cars will be.

As a fan of science fiction and driving I’m torn. I love the concept of being driven to work – without having to pay for a chauffeur. On the other hand, I enjoy driving so I wouldn’t want it to drive me all the time. But with eight years to perfect this system I’m sure Google has something simple, elegant and ad-funded planned.