Google self-driving cars log 300K miles accident free, adds Lexus SUV to fleet

We always had a deep interest in Google’s self-driving car project. It develops technology to make driverless cars, and Google engineer Sebastian Thrun leads the charge. The Google team has operated the driverless cars daily on the roadway with as many as 12 cars going at any time. In an announcement made today, Google said its self-driving cars logged a whopping 300,000 miles accident free (but there was one time when it was the drivers fault). The company added that while a ton of progress has been made, the self-driving project still has a long way to go. For example, the cars still need to master snowy conditions.

Google also revealed that it added the Lexus RX450h to its fleet of self-driving vehicles to “fine our systems in different environments and on different terrain.” How stylish.

The self-driving project has come a long way over the past year. In June 2011, Nevada passed a law concerning self-driving cars on the roadway and granted the first license for a driverless car in May 2012. With over 300,000 miles logged, next comes self-driving cars used for the daily commute.

“As a next step, members of the self-driving car team will soon start using the cars solo (rather than in pairs), for things like commuting to work,” said Google in a blog post. “This is an important milestone, as it brings this technology one step closer to every commuter.” [Google]

Now wondering… will self-driving cars pick up hitchhikers?Is there an algorithm for that?

— Steven Levy (@StevenLevy) August 7, 2012

Self-driving Google cars go 300K w/out accident — can you?But hasn’t mastered snow.(Like most west-coasters.) googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-se…

— Steven Levy (@StevenLevy) August 7, 2012