Mountain View – Automated cars are being driven down California’s fabled Highway 1. Seven test cars, six modified Toyota Priuses and one Audi TT, have been driven thousands of miles without the direct control of a driver as part of a little known project led by Google.
Is this legal? Google thinks so. A careful reading of the California motor vehicle regulations indicates as long as a human driver is present at all times and ready to override the computer to take immediate control, these experimental automated cars are legal. Still, Google has hired more than a dozen drivers with impeccable driving records to sit behind the wheel, ready to take over if needed. This can be done as easily and quickly as one disengages a cruise control. Have they been involved in any accidents? Well, yes. One. While stopped at a traffic light, one Google automated car was rear-ended. Score one for the robots.
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