News from Nevada, Las Vegas today is sure to please fans of classic 80s telly show Knight Rider – as internet and software giant Google has gained itself the first ever licence for a self-driving car!
The company patented a driver-less autonomously controlled vehicle back in December but with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles giving the law a lot of thought, almost six months later they have now finally been awarded a license to actually allow the car to drive itself on public highways across the State.
Just like the famous K.I.T.T the car, which in this case is a Toyota Prius, uses high tech cameras and sensors to guide itself and its laid back passengers safely between locations whilst avoiding obstacles and hopefully stopping at the red lights! After 140,000 miles of road testing by Google the car never had an accident and the Prius can switch back to manual at any time just in case.
However, the idea of the car came originally from the facts that the majority of road accidents are by human error and to remove that factor and replace senses with computer and gadgetry in theory should make roads safer. We’ll take Google’s word for it for the time being and can’t help but wonder if future models in the Google showroom will come with Chrome accessories (Sorry..!)
Tech and motor vehicles have a continuously growing relationship and recently Gadget Helpline wrote of the ultra-cool Ford Mustang designed by West Coast Customs and rammed with Microsoft goodies including Kinect and Windows 8 tablet! Check out our coverage – Here.
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