Google’s autonomous cars will hit the road on mass this year

It’s common to see futuristic technology from movies make it to consumers’ backyards years down the track.  Mobile telephones were first conceived of in the Star Trek series, the babel fish from Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy is now called a Phraselater used primarily by the military. If you’ve got a cool $1.5m floating around, you can even buy James Bond’s submersible on-land and under-water car.  If you grew up watching the autonomous taxi in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original Total Recall movie, you may have thought you would never see the day when you could hail one of those self-driving cabs.

Well, that day has arrived. Albeit without the freaky-face robotic driver.

Uber recently signed a $375 million deal with Google for the acquisition of 2,500 autonomous driving cars.  They will be launching the first fleet in one of their markets that has approved the use of driverless cars on the road; New York, California, Illinois or Washington by the end of the year.  These markets will serve as a test run for consumer feedback before the major roll out into all possible markets.

Dubbed ‘UberAUTO’, Uber claims the use of driverless cars as a key player in its logistics and delivery service will significantly reduce traffic congestion and safety incidents.

Self-driving technology uses camera, sensors, automatic brakes and big data information from maps and other cars on the road to direct the car along the correct route and effectively respond to traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, other cars and unexpected hazards on the road.  Already, many cars are equipped with self-braking technology and parking assistance, where the driver hands over control of the car to the car’s computer.  The cars provided to Uber are Google’s third model of driverless car called a GX3200.  The first was a 2-passenger design called GX1000, the second a family sedan called GX2100.  This latest offering acts as its own wireless base, meaning the cars are fully connected to Google’s WirelessGig service.

Google’s driverless cars are also completely electric, able to drive 1200km or remain without charge for 48 hours.  Forget searching for a petrol station at the last minute.  Google cars are designed to find the closest powerUP station by themselveswhen not in use.

Transitioning to full use of self-driving technology means more efficient use of our roads.  It will increase the adoption of car sharing, blurring the divide between public and private transport.  Google sites a vision of self-driving taxis whipping around the city picking up passengers for less cost that it takes to own a car.  Elimination of human error will mean fewer accidents on the road and a saving of lives.

The futuristic reality of self-driving cars is not more than a few years away for mainstream consumers, bringing a whole new meaning to the idea of ‘calling a taxi’.  In the future, you will actually be calling the actual taxi to come and pick you up.