Google Self-Driving Car

While most automakers are approaching autonomous cars incrementally, Google's removal of the driver from the equation could dramatically cut traffic deaths.

OpinionsLike Google, most automakers and several top automotive suppliers are developing self-driving technology. But unlike Google, most automakers and suppliers are moving slowly toward full autonomy via driver-assist technology, while some vow that they will never totally remove the driver from the equation.

Google has stated that its goal is "a vehicle that could shoulder the entire burden of driving. Vehicles that can take anyone from A to B at the push of a button." And last week it took a giant step towards that objective.

Google announced that it's taking its fully autonomous car prototype that debuted last year—without a steering wheel or brake and gas pedals—from the lab and test track onto public roads this summer. The two-seat, pod-like, purpose-built self-driving car will be tested on "the familiar roads of Mountain View, California" near the company's campus, Google said in a blog post last week.

So far, Google has built 25 self-driving prototypes, and "will roll them out a few at a time." To comply with regulations, the prototypes will have a removable steering wheel and accelerator and brake pedals, and Google "safety drivers" aboard to take control if needed. The top speed of the cars will also be limited to "a neighborhood-friendly" 25 miles per hour.

The goal of the testing is for the cars to not only learn how to "handle rare and weird situations on the road," but also "how the community perceives and interacts with the vehicles," Google said. And the company is launching a website to accompany the prototype testing project that will allow residents of Mountain View to comment on the company's self-driving cars.

The Cost of Having Humans Behind the Wheel
Since last week I've already heard plenty of comments from everyone from hardcore car enthusiasts to everyday commuters on Google's fully autonomous approach, with most saying they never want to see a day when human drivers don't have some sort of control behind the wheel. While I love to drive and leaving the task to machines is somewhat disconcerting, there are almost 33,000 reasons why I applaud Google for pushing the envelope on autonomous technology.

That's the approximate number of people who die each year in traffic accidents in the U.S.—the equivalent of a 747 commercial airliner going down about every week. That would likely cause people to immediately call for changes to airline safety, but is tacitly accepted as part of the cost for having humans behind the wheel.

"We've been fighting the war against losing people on the road for 50 to 60 years on the federal government level," David Strickland, a partner at the law firm Venable LLP and a former NHTSA Administrator, told me. While car fatalities have been dramatically reduced thanks to passive and active safety systems such as seat belts and airbags, Google's fully autonomous technology can help further reduce and even eliminate highway deaths.

Nextcar Bug art"You really need something like this to get to zero deaths," Strickland said. "And I think the Google approach is the first step in how we get there. This may be one way to hopefully get mass-market acceptance of the technology, which is frankly way safer than having [drivers] on the roads in various stages of experience and physicality."

Another compelling reason for Google's fully autonomous approach, as opposed to partial autonomy, is the issue of "handback," the shift between machine and human control that's often brought up as barrier to self-driving technology. Dealing with handback and reengaging a driver is "really, really hard and you may cause an adverse reaction," Strickland noted. "A startled person taking control back may make them a more dangerous driver." This isn't an issue with Google's vision of fully self-driving cars. "The answer is to let technology do all the driving," Strickland remarked.

While I'm not convinced that we'll have fully autonomous vehicles on public roads by the end of the decade, as Google has said, I believe that the technology will eventually take over much of the driving task on highways and in cities. But like many people, I also never want to see the day when humans can't drive in certain instances, since I like to carve a canyon or back road as much as anyone.

And then there's the business side of self-driving technology. Google said last week that it doesn't intend to sell its self-driving prototypes and that they are designed to "learn how people might want to use them." But it added that "once you actually see a vehicle like this, you might start to think differently about how you'd want a vehicle in your life."

But I am convinced that Google is changing the self-driving game and that its fully autonomous approach will have far-reaching implications. "Google being a nontraditional company in the space has focused everyone's energy into this," Strickland said.

"What Google has done is to push the envelope in this technology. Regardless of how this experiment turns out," he added, "it's to all of our benefit." And eventually removing most human drivers from behind the wheel will be too.