Google testing self-driven cars in Wahington
04 Feb 2016
Google announced it would begin testing self-driven cars in Kirkland, Washington, on Wednesday - the third city where the autonomous vehicles had hit the road.
Google started developing self-driving cars nearly seven years ago and has been conducting tests on the vehicles on the roads of Silicon Valley since 2009. The company extended the tests to Austin, Texas, last summer.
According to the Jennifer Haroon, head of business operations with Google's self-driving-car division, Kirkland was "the natural next place to go". The tech-friendly city had a temperate climate that would give the cars a chance to test the impact of rain, the city government had had also been welcoming. Google also had a large campus in Kirkland.
To start with, the ''fleet'' would be just one Lexus RX 450h SUV with ''Google'' emblazoned on the side. It would steer itself around Kirkland's streets with a Google employee in the car. The vehicle had a steering wheel and could pull over or stop if anything happened.
Haroon added, the company had not announced plans to bring additional cars to Washington or to bring its house-built self-driving car, which had an almost circular shape.
According to a statement from Google, one reason for the new site in the northwest US was to gain experience in 'different driving environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions.'
Kirkland had significant seasonal rain that allowed for wet weather testing, along with hills that would allow testing of sensors at different angles and elevations.
Google had, a few weeks ago, driven a single Lexus RX450h SUV around a few square miles in North Kirkland to create a detailed map of the streets.
Google claims, its self-driving software had already been tested in over 1.4 million miles of autonomous driving.
The US transportation department said, last month, that it might waive some vehicle safety rules to allow more driverless cars to operate on US roads as part of a broader effort to accelerate development of self-driving vehicles.
