Google launches its robotic cars on Austin, Texas roads

Google is continuing to develop autonomous driving systems for cars. The test car wound for hundreds of thousands of kilometers (or rather, it is already more than 2 million km) on US roads, but the tests do not stop. So, Google decided to test their cars on the roads of the capital of Texas, Austin. The corporation said that tests were conducted to test the operation of software and hardware platforms in various conditions (different traffic congestion, types of tracks, etc.).

Austin became the first city after Mountain View, where such a large-scale test of robotic cars was conducted. Cause? “We really like the way Austin takes innovation,” a Google spokeswoman said. In addition, there are several company offices in Austin, plus the Google Fiber project is being implemented. It is logical that in a village with such a saturation of Google products, this company will conduct tests in the first place.

As before, for safety in each car there are two people who are ready to take control. The company also received permission from Texas Governor Greg Abbot, Texas Department of Transportation, US police, and other government agencies. However, the corporation never informs the media about the time of the tests or in general about the intention to conduct tests in a particular locality.

Note that for 6 years of testing, the cars of the corporation were in 11 accidents. In all cases, as it turned out, the cause of the accident was pedestrians or drivers who did not follow the rules of the road. The corporation recently presented the details of all the accidents, so that the public and authorities could make sure that the automatic control system worked as it should, and that the computer was not to blame for the accident.

In Austin, the Lexus RX450h was tested.