Google expands self-driving car testing to Washington State

However, the self-driving cars ought to be tested in various cities, with varied topography as well as weather and traffic conditions for the extensive deployment of the cars for use by masses. In addition to the warm welcome from the local government, Google also said the place’s wet, rainy climate offers the company a chance to test the vehicles in other conditions. The company has previously tested the self-driving cars in Mountain View, California, where Google is based, and Austin Texas.

Google is driving its autonomous cars into North Kirkland, Wash., which is now home to a handful of self-driving Lexus RX450h SUVs.

“They care more than anybody about the safety of these vehicles”, Triplett said.

The self-driving vehicle actually has been hitting Kirkland’s streets since late past year, with drivers firmly in control of the auto.

The small city appears to be a sensible choice for autonomous vehicle testing in a more challenging environment, as both Mountain View and Austin are both dominated by sunny, dry days. Google then uses playback of the drivers’ actions to predict what scenarios could have happened if the vehicle had been self-driving and uses that to make refinements to its software.

Google says they have logged 1.4 million miles in testing so far.

Triplett said he’d meet every six months or so with Google representatives and toss in a reminder of Kirkland’s interest in driverless cars. And apparently, Washington Governor Jay Inslee is completely on board with the project. Google’s autonomous vehicle ambitions have started coming into spotlight recently, as new milestones have been achieved.

Haroon added, the company had not announced plans to bring additional cars to Washington or to bring its house-built self-driving auto, which had an nearly circular shape.

Kirkland Mayor, Amy Walen said of the cars’ imminent arrival, “we’re thrilled to have the cars here as they do more testing”.

Google continues to test the future of driving, and have come to the Evergreen state.

As an example, the simulator runs Google’s newest software program to drive the routes the corporate’s precise automobiles had beforehand pushed to see if there is a change of their habits.