Google granted patent for its driverless car project

VentureBeat reports that Google has been granted a patent for its driverless car project. The patent covers “methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode” — aka no driver. In the past, Google has been testing these cars out on the streets, and there has only been one crash. Luckily, that was human error and not machine’s.

The cars use various sensors to detect surrounding areas and theoretically could dock to a landing strip for more instructions like directions. Nevada was the first state to legalize driverless cars last summer. This technology is still a few years out from everyday use, but is definitely cool nonetheless. Check out a video explaining the project after the break.

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