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Google Self-Driving Car

Details

Google's self-driving car is a modified Toyota Prius that can autonomously drive in city traffic and on highways. The goal is developing technology to reduce traffic accidents and increase road efficiency.

Creator
Google
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Year
2010
Type
Autonomous Vehicle, Research
Creator
Google
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Year
2010
Type
Autonomous Vehicle, Research

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Did You Know?

Google started its secret self-driving program in 2009. It was called Project Chauffeur.
Between Project Chauffeur's inception in 2009 and the end of 2015, Google spent $1.1 billion on developing its self-driving software and hardware.
In Nevada, Google's cars have special license plates featuring an infinity symbol and the letters "AU," for "autonomous."

Specs

FEATURES
Capable of self-driving in various road conditions while obeying traffic laws. Equipped with optional aggressive driving mode (for closed courses).
HEIGHT
149.1 cm | 58.7 in (not including LIDAR)
LENGTH
446 cm | 175.6 in
WIDTH
174.5 cm | 68.7 in
WEIGHT
1380 kg | 3042 lb (car only)
SPEED
N/A km/h | N/A mph

SENSORS
Camera, Velodyne 64-beam laser range finder, four radars, GPS, inertial measurement unit, wheel encoder.
ACTUATORS
N/A
POWER
Gas and electrons
COMPUTING
N/A
SOFTWARE
N/A
DEGREES OF FREEDOM (DOF)
N/A
MATERIALS
Modified Toyota Prius
COST
N/A
STATUS
Inactive
WEBSITE
http://www.google.com

History

To develop its driverless car, Google gathered some of the leading engineers from the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. government. These engineers, led by Stanford professor and Google researcher Sebastian Thrun, include Chris Urmson, who was the technical team leader of the CMU team that won the 2007 Urban Challenge; Mike Montemerlo, who was the software lead for the Stanford team that won the 2005 Grand Challenge; and Anthony Levandowski, who built the world's first autonomous motorcycle that participated in a DARPA Grand Challenge. As of August 2012, the cars had logged more than 300,000 miles (about 482,000 km) driving in city traffic and on busy highways and mountain roads.