Google Pushes Nevada to Allow for Driverless Cars

Published on May 16, 2011 by Peter Huey in Blog, News/Trends

Interesting stuff from Google. This article was is Auto Trends Magazine on line.

The age of autonomous vehicles may be closer than you think.

We have electric cars that can be fully recharged right in your garage and there are amphibious vehicles that have been successfully deployed on lakes and on highways for over 50 years. No car built today flies, but if Internet giant Google has its way, the first state-approved autonomous or driverless cars will soon be zipping alongside you on the highway.

Google has been working diligently to fine tune self driven car technology and has hired a lobbyist to approach Nevada’s state legislature to see if the Silver State would pass the required legislation to allow for driverless cars. Less than a year ago, Google’s once secret plan to develop autonomous vehicles came to light after a reporter wanted to know what a certain funnel-like device was sitting on a Toyota Prius driven by a Google representative.

Self Driven Cars

As it turns out, Google was experimenting with autonomous driving, by placing a rotating sensor on the roof of the car and using video cameras, radar and sensors to navigate traffic-clogged California roads. With each test drive, a professional driver was behind the wheel of the car ready to take over and a passenger sat up front monitoring progress and taking notes. Unknown to anyone was that the driver never had his hands on the steering wheel. Google revealed that it had logged more than 140,000 miles of autonomous driving including driving down San Francisco’s steep Lombard Street reports The New York Times.¹

Mass produced autonomous cars are years away from being introduced to the market. However, if Nevada’s state legislature passes the required legislation, Google could introduce autonomous vehicles for fleet use, perhaps moving people around the Las Vegas Strip.

DARPA Challenges

Google’s push for driverless car technology follows on the heels of successful testing underway for many years. In 2004, 2005 and again in 2007, the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA sponsored “Grand Challenges” to encourage companies, universities and others to develop driverless technology. The Defense Department offered cash prizes, seeking assistance to develop driverless vehicles suitable for military use.

The first year, no teams finished the race. The second year, five teams completed the race which was won by a team from Stanford University. Second and third place went to teams from Carnegie-Mellon University who later teamed up with General Motors to win the 2007 race.²

Stanford Connection

Google’s direct involvement with DARPA isn’t known, but the Internet company has always had strong ties with Stanford as both Sergey Brin and Larry Page, company co-founders, suspended their Ph.D. studies to launch Google in September 2008.³ A Stanford professor wrote out a check for $100,000 to help launch Google, and the university is a stakeholder in the company. Google has since hired a Stanford professor to head up its driverless car initiative and seems ready to turn everything up a notch, especially if Nevada buys in.

Nevada legislators will be tasked with ensuring that safety protocols are in place and amend one important law for Google’s sake: texting while driving. Google wants to send reports out via text message, but under Nevada law it currently cannot do so even in a driverless vehicle.

Google’s explanation about the company’s quest for driverless cars can be found on its official company blog. There you’ll learn that many of the participants of the three DARPA challenges have been retained by Google to develop its proprietary driverless technology.⁴