Google’s self-driving bubble cars are here, chugging slowly and steadily down Mountain View streets.
The company revealed Thursday morning that the cars are now test-driving themselves around the city of Mountain View. Their debut on public roads happened Wednesday, after more than a year of being tested on a former Central Valley military base and other private lots.
The tiny cars will join Google’s self-driving Lexus SUVS that have been steering themselves around Mountain View streets for years, and use the same software and detailed mapping system.
“They’re ultimately designed to work without a steering wheel or pedals, but during this 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,” Google said in a blog post Thursday. “The prototypes’ speed is capped at a neighborhood-friendly 25mph, and they’ll drive using the same software that our existing Lexus vehicles use—the same fleet that has self-driven over 1 million miles since we started the project. As we start to cruise around the neighborhood, we really want to hear what our neighbors think.”
Above: Google’s self-driving car rides down a Mountain View thoroughfare. (Photo courtesy Google)
