California green light for robot cars

Google co-founder Sergey Brin gestures after riding in a driverless car with California Gov. Edmund G Brown Jr., left, and state Senator Alex Padilla, second from left, to a bill signing for driverless cars at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. The legislation will open the way for driverless cars in the state. Google, which has been developing autonomous car technology and lobbying for the legislation has a fleet of driverless cars that has logged more than 300,000 miles (482,780 kilometers) of self-driving on California roads. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Google co-founder Sergey Brin gestures after riding in a driverless car with California Gov. Edmund G Brown Jr., left, and state Senator Alex Padilla, second from left, to a bill signing for driverless cars at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. The legislation will open the way for driverless cars in the state. Google, which has been developing autonomous car technology and lobbying for the legislation has a fleet of driverless cars that has logged more than 300,000 miles (482,780 kilometers) of self-driving on California roads. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Published Sep 26, 2012

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California took the fast lane to the future on Tuesday when governor Jerry Brown signed a law that allows self-driving cars on public roads.

Brown rode to the signing ceremony at Google headquarters in the passenger seat of a vehicle that steered itself, a Prius modified by Google. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and senator Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill, were along for the ride. A Google engineer sat in the driver's seat but the car drove itself.

“We're looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow's reality,” Brown said just before signing the bill.

Google has been working on self-driving technology since 2010, including testing a fleet of self-driving cars along California roadways.

Google's driverless cars rely on video cameras, radar sensors, lasers and a database of information collected from manually driven cars to help navigation, according to the company.

The new law will go into effect in 2013.

It establishes safety and performance regulations for testing driverless cars, provided an operator is ready to take control if necessary.

However, industry officials say it will probably be years before a fully self-driving autonomous vehicle hits the road, .

Brin said: “I think the self-driving car can really dramatically improve the quality of life.

He pointed to uses ranging from aiding the blind, ferrying revelers who drank too much, to simply making better use of commuting time.

He added that by driving closer together more safely than human-driven cars, self-driven cars might cut congestion.

But Google has no plans to build its own driverless cars.

“We have had great conversations with a variety of automakers,” he said. “Anything we do is going to be in partnership with the industry.”

The technology has been in the works since the 1950s, when General Motors showed off “dream cars” with features such as autopilot. Recently, carmakers have started incorporating into today's models some elements based on the innovations in those early vehicles, including adaptive cruise control or traffic-jam technologies that can slow the car automatically.

Carmakers developing autonomous technologies include BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-benz, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo, as well as suppliers, technology companies and universities.

Chip company Intel created a $100 million (R8.24 billion) fund in February to invest in future auto technology.

Nevada and Florida have already passed laws allowing self-driving cars. - Reuters

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