Google Test Driveless Cars

While the flying cars from The Jetsons may still be a pipe dream, driverless cars are not. Google is test-driving autonomous (or self-driving) cars on the roads around its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. And car companies are racing to follow suit.

Googles self-driving car project began in 2009 with nearly 100,000 miles of secretive testing on California highways, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company filed for a patent for transitioning a mixed-mode vehicle to autonomous mode in May 2011. At that point, Google had already been testing its fleet of driver-less Toyota Prius and Audi TT models for several years, logging 160,000 miles with limited human input and more than 1,000 miles without driver involvement, BBC News reported in 2011.

Googles current fleet of more than two dozen Lexus hybrid SUVs meanwhile have traveled over 7000,000 miles in self-driving mode, the Associated Press reports.

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Google says its goal is to get the technology to the public by 2017, but it has not said how it will market the technology. Options include collaborating with major carmakers or giving away the software, as the company did with its Android operating system. Google co-founder Sergey Brin told the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to partner with automakers to implement the technology, rather than manufacturing its own cars.

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