Google co-founder announces goal to get cars ready before four years

Google used machine learning to teach cars how people drive and, from there, to anticipate what motorists in surrounding traffic are likely to do. “Computers have really good reaction times. They don’t get distracted, drowsy, fall asleep, and they don’t drive drunk,” Google self-driving car software team lead Dmitri Dolgov told reporters getting an intimate look at prototypes at the Computer History Museum.

Prototype Google cars have driven more than 100,000 miles on public roads, always with someone ready to take the wheel. There have been two accidents while cars were on auto-pilot. Both times, vehicles were rear-ended while stopped at traffic signals, according to Urmson.

“We are at the point where we are really convinced we have cracked this and can make it work,” Urmson said of self-driving cars being trusted on roads. Urmson sidestepped predicting when Google self-driving cars might hit the market, but said he is determined to make it happen by the time his six-year-old son reaches driving age.

Sergey Brin, co founder of Google has publicly stated the even more ambitious goal of having the cars ready less than four years from now.

A panel of urban development and transportation specialists that took part in the event billed the self-driving car as a quantum leap in safety that could prevent many of the approximately 33,000 roadway deaths in the US each year.