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Google's self-driving cars have been successfully programmed to master the navigation of city streets and the challenges that they present, including jaywalkers and weaving cyclists. This is a critical milestone not only for self-driving car technology, but also for the automobile industry.
Despite this progress, cars still have a lot of learning to do. Silicon Valley tech giants look forward to making the technology open to the public by 2017.
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"I think the Google technology is great stuff. But I just don't see a quick pathway to the market," said David Alexander, a senior analyst with Navigant Research.
Developers have been taking the progress of the technology steady, as they have released small hints of a full self-driving car. For example, Google released technology that allows automatic brake and acceleration in traffic, and keep cars in their lane.
Google's self-driving cars can navigate freeways comfortably, with a driver on standby ready to take control when necessary. The project's leader said that the technology is capable of functioning well in thousands of situations.
"We're growing more optimistic that we're heading toward an achievable goal -- a vehicle that operates fully without human intervention," project director Chris Urmson wrote. The result of this would be less accidents and safer driving.
"As it turns out, what looks chaotic and random on a city street to the human eye is actually fairly predictable to a computer. As we've encountered thousands of different situations, we've built software models of what to expect, from the likely (a car stopping at a red light) to the unlikely (blowing through it)." Google mentioned about the technology.
The test cars have logged over 700,000 autonomous miles and the developers are starting to believe that the technology will have the potential to become regular in the automobile industry and amongst the average driver.
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Source : http://www.designntrend.com/articles/13267/20140428/googles-driverless-car-technology-is-reaching-its-potential.htm
