One word to describe the ride inside Google's driver-less cars? Boring. Or so several journalists say.
Google predicts its five-year-old futuristic cars will not steer their way into our cities' main streets anytime soon, but the firm's semi-secretive Google X is already taking upon itself the challenging task of making the public feel comfortable about being transported around by robots.
The company invited around two dozen journalists to a press briefing on the progress of its automotive technology followed by a 30-minute tour around Mountain View, California onboard Google's self-driving cars.
The white Lexus robot cars were not hard to identify, thanks to the roof-mounted sensors that rotate 10 times a second to tell the car where it is within centimeters. Inside, on the center of the console is a big red kill button that is meant to turn the autopilot system off. Thankfully, no one had been tempted to press the kill switch.
"Generally speaking, the car drove conservatively, a bit like grandparents heading to church," writes Marco della Cava of USA Today, one of the journalists invited to the event. "What made this drive eventful was how utterly uneventful it was. On this predetermined route at least - a route that had been mapped out in detail for the car by Google engineers - there seemed like little chance for drama."
Others who hopped onboard also noted the same thing, saying that the ride was for the most part, (felt) completely ordinary. One particular quirk that caught their attention, however, was the car seemed to switch lanes sharply. Other than that, the car obeyed the speed limit, alerted the driver that it was approaching a crosswalk, and kept a close eye on the cars, pedestrians and bicyclists that were in its vicinity.
Google's driver-less cars have been five years in the making, but its engineers predict it won't be until after three to six years before the cars hit the city streets. Project director Chris Urmson said safety is still a major concern, despite the more-than-satisfactory test drives.
Still, six years could be too optimistic, given how much Google X still has to work on. Dmitri Dolgov, the team's head for software, said they have not yet come up with solutions to problems such as driving in variable weather, which could impede the car's sensors. Dolgov said the cars are as good as human drivers when driving in foggy conditions and rain can cause trouble for them. The robot cars have not yet even encountered snow.
"Back in the days of 2009 when we started, everything sucked. So you could spend half hour hacking in the parking lot and make it 300% better. That is no longer the case. So we really need to drive a lot and discover challenging situations," Dolgov said.
