After months of testing in private captivity, Google is ready to release its koala-esque autonomous pod into the wild. The Silicon Valley giant announced in a blog post today that its self-driving bubble-mobile will hit the streets of Mountain View, California, this summer.
The next step in autonomous testing will bring a human along for safety, Google assures us. “[D]uring this next phase of our project we’ll have safety drivers aboard with a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal that allow them to take over driving if needed,” the blog post explains. It’s important that Google itemized the control inputs available on every vehicle to drive our roads since the dawn of the automobile—because, assuming successful testing, Google eventually wants its commuter pods to go around sans steering wheel and pedals.
This fleet of test vehicles will run the same autonomous software that currently powers Google’s slightly more conventional-looking fleet of self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs, the technology giant explains. Those autonomous crossovers have logged nearly a million miles of no-human-hands driving since the project’s inception, Google says. The real-world testing will help refine the software’s response to unpredictable challenges—Google’s example is “where it should stop if it can’t stop at its exact destination due to construction or congestion.” The company also hopes to observe how the community “perceives and interacts with the vehicles.” They sure make it look unassuming enough:
Still: If you’re in Mountain View this summer, and you see a bubble-shaped Googlemobile headed your way, maybe give it a wide berth.
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