From a little birdy:

Anthony Levandowski is the current head of the Google Self Driving Car program.

Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

Eric Schmidt has spoken to the press today about the self driving car program:

Schmidt revealed that Google had talked to “all” of the auto-manufacturers globally about the cars, which he called “not yet ready for productization” facing challenges including getting individual states to approve it (Nevada is the only one currently).

“The current biggest problem is that it runs at the speed limit and nobody drives at the speed limit,” Schmidt said. Apparently Google has proto-types that don’t run at the speed limit however; as Schmidt revealed that Google had a racecourse in an undisclosed location, where the car would race human-driven cars, and win.

…

Schmidt also went into how exactly the car worked, saying that a consumer will eventually type an address in what he called “Google maps on steriods.” “The deal here is that there’s a person in the driver’s seat, and a really big red button that says “Off.” He said the self-driving car would function much like a plane’s auto pilot, ultimately bolstered by a real human on standby (emphasis mine).

There’s nothing ‘new’ but it’s always exciting to hear Google talking about it.

Regarding the bolded final line, this seems to contradict Google’s PR exercises with blind people. I think the ‘human on standby’ line is just a way to ease people into acceptance of the technology.

We’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about the passage of self driving car legislation through the Californian legislature.

It’s getting a fair amount of attention from tech media for two reasons. First, most tech media is based in California and second, the state is probably the most important legal battleground given that the region is such a hub for innovation.

While Autonomous Vehicle legislation has passed the Californian Senate 37-0, it’s being reviewed by house committees who are proving to be more of a challenge, with several amendments proposed that would impede development of the technology:

During his testimony Monday, a Google representative said if California legislators amend a proposed driverless car bill to effectively forbid their “driverlessness,” the state will be telling autonomous car technology to get out of town.

More here

From Patent Bolt:

“The US Patent & Trademark Office has published Google’s latest trademark application for their “Google Driverless Car” Icon under application 85650611. Can you guess which one it is? No? Well, it’s the one in the bottom right corner that’s slightly tilted. Google filed their trademark under International Class 12 covering “electronic system that allows autonomous driving of vehicles.” Beyond their new icon, our report lists a number of newly registered trademarks that Google gained in June 2012.”

 

What do you think? Do you like the wonky car symbol?

I personally don’t like it – it’s as if the image is from a children’s book!

Thanks to Chris Law for sending this in.

We tend to avoid posting every single snippet in the media about the Google Driverless Car program… Otherwise we’d be posting about it 5 times a day.

However, today Marginal Revolution posted this link from KTVZ. It’s a great, detailed review of one man’s experience in the Driverless Car:

The drive was thrilling and fascinating because, come on, the car drives itself. In traffic! Disappointing because it’s clearly not going to be ready for public use for years and years.

For now, at least, the car only drives routes it’s been trained to drive. My ride in Washington DC was along a route that Google engineers had driven with the car earlier. Google refused to allow the car to be driven anywhere beyond this well-studied environment, at least not with the media tagging along.

Still, that doesn’t mean it was a cake walk.

No Google engineer taught the car that a bunch of kids on a field trip would march out in front of it at an intersection. It stopped and waited for them on its own. And no-one told it that, right after that, another car would run the four-way stop sign right in front of it. It handled that, too, avoiding a collision all on its own.

At first, those interactions seemed boringly normal to me until I remembered… no-one was driving! The car had done that all itself while the man in the driver’s seat sat passively watching.

Jason Koebler from USnews.com (@jason_koebler) has spotted a Google Driverless Car in DC. Speculation is that Google is attempting to woo federal lawmakers.

Driverless Car Spotted in DC - US News.com

In the past Google has certainly attempted to impress policymakers (see here, here and here) and we can only speculate they are doing something similar now:

Wooing lawmakers would be nothing new—the company reportedly spent $5 million lobbying Congress between January and March, more than Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft combined.
The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles said in a tweet that Google didn’t inform them of the company’s plans to operate the car in the District. Like most states, D.C. law allows out-of-state drivers to operate vehicles.

It makes sense, Google has encouraged two US states to enact driverless car legislation. A logical next move would be to lock in gains in Washington DC. We are betting on legislation even if its tokenistic after all, State legislators Alex Padila from California (and to a lesser extent Jeff Brandes from Florida) have gotten a many positive headlines for pushing their respective laws. Driverless cars are a great feel good story that demonstrates the best of what American technology has to offer. Any Federal politicians familiar with Alex Padila must surely know that an association with driverless cars legislation will be good for their careers.

To the horror of some and delight of others, the Google Driverless Car has now achieved a major milestone.

Google is 14 years old, so it has achieved something which can only make it the envy of teenagers world-wide : get its driver’s license.

Here’s an AP article as published in the Washington Post:

Department of Motor Vehicles officials said Monday they’ve issued Google the nation’s first license to test self-driving cars on public streets, after conducting demonstrations on the Las Vegas Strip and in Carson City that show the car is as safe — or perhaps safer — than a human.

“It gets honked at more often because it’s being safe,” said Nevada DMV Director Bruce Breslow.

See that? That’s the Nevada DMV tooting the horn of driverless cars – and not for the first time either

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I just came across a short article by Michael Wayland mlive.com that summarises the efforts of Google, Continental, Ford and GM in the field of producing a driverless car.

In short the article doesn’t offer much new, mostly each company emphasising the need for more testing of the technology. Ford do seem to be indicating they are aiming for 2017 for some degree of “autopilot” technology in their vehicles. Continental on the other hand seem to be hinting at a 2020 goal for having their sensor technology available.

On one hand I’m a little sceptical of dates and deadlines, on the other with so many competitors trying to commercialise driverless car technology the pressure really is on to be the first on the market.

The video above is not brand new but it’s brilliant. It shows a journalist getting flung around as the Google Driverless Car goes hell for leather around a course of witches hats. The look on her face is priceless.

She quickly learns to trust the technology, as would be expected – it’s our belief that most people will lose all doubts within minutes of testing it out.

The key quote “It’s like magic”.

(Thanks to Vinosh)

Wired has a pic of Google’s latest addition to their fleet, the Hybrid Luxeus RX450h. Click the link to check it out.

Also, we have been experiencing a few glitches to the website lately. Sorry and thanks for bearing with us! They are now fixed.