The idea of self driving cars has been around for a while with companies like Google leading the way in creating and testing these autonomous cars. These companies want these automatic cars to drive themselves to increase the safety of the public by reducing car accidents. People wouldn't have to drive, but the computer would for them using sensors to ensure the safety of the passengers. Google made a functioning prototype of their idea in December 2014 and wanted to test the cars next year in January The company's goal is to release these cars to the public in 2020.
These Google cars are rounded, so its sensors can detect things in a much bigger field of view. The car uses its sensor information to find its location, so the car knows where it is currently. Other sensors identify nearby objects by their size, speed, and shape. The car now is able to predict what the objects might do. If it detects a person, the car will automatically start slowing down and going slightly away from the pedestrian. Sensors can also detect stoplights to determine when to accelerate, brake, and stop.
Google's self-driving cars so far have been really safe. Out of the 1.7 million miles the test vehicles have driven, only in one car accident, the Google car software was at fault. Even then, the car tried to not hit sandbags, and in doing so, it hit a bus. Up until July 2015, the cars were in only fourteen minor car accidents in which it wasn't the car's fault, but another driver's fault. The Google autonomous cars are really safe and can detect many situations. They can deal with cyclists, construction zones, railroads, and even small objects and animals. They predict situations according to what things they detect, and these cars are really safe in general.