California is about to become the third state in the US with legislation designed to explicitly allow autonomous vehicles to be tested. California Governor Jerry Brown will sign the new law today at Google's headquarters in Mountain View. Yesterday afternoon, on Google's video channel, I noticed a new live stream page that went up saying that Google cofounder Sergey Brin would be interviewing Brown on the Google campus. For what? That wasn't stated. Later that day, the Governor's office sent out a notice that Brown would be signing legislation at Google. What legislation wasn't revea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Self-Driving Cars | Top News

Forget it, Las Vegas Strip. Move over Area 51. Perhaps cruising up the Extraterrestrial Highway will be Nevada's latest tourist attraction, Google auto-driving cars sporting new autonomous vehicle license plates. Google has been working to get official approval to test its self-driving cars in several US states. They've operated in California, where so far they've been deemed legal by existing laws. But Nevada just became the first state to give official sanction to testing such vehicles. Approval To Test, Supervision Still Required This doesn't mean that the cars will be out there drivin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google: Self-Driving Cars | Top News

Google posted an amazing video of one of its self-driving cars taking a blind man for a drive. What was remarkable to me was that it's the first time I've ever seen one of these cars in operation with a non-Google employee behind the wheel. It also raised some issues about whether the trip was legal. Yes, says the police department that helped arrange it. Can Cars Legally Drive Themselves? The legality of self-driving cars in California, where Google first started testing them, is unclear. When news of the cars first came to light in 2010, the New York Times summarized: “The technology [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google: Self-Driving Cars