Yes! Google announced today via a blog post that it is rolling out a smallish fleet of its self-driving cars this summer.
“A few of the prototype vehicles we’ve created will leave the test track and hit the familiar roads of Mountain View, Calif., with our safety drivers aboard,” writes Chris Urmson, director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project.
This project appears to be right on track. Every car can only go up to 25 mph and must have a safety driver on board with a removable steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals, even though they are seen as kind of unnecessary human things that Google eventually wants to take out.
Google is encouraging anyone who sees one on the road to share what they think on its Google+ page.
Recently, Google also released safety stats via a blog post by Urmson that we reported on earlier this week: “The Google cars have been involved in 11 total accidents over 1.7 million test miles. None significant. Or caused by the Google cars.”
Exciting stuff.
