Google has reached the stage in its self-driving car project where its cars have hit the road.

A fleet of Google’s own prototype cars are now driving around the town of Mountain View, California, where the search engine giant has its headquarters, in a test phase that will challenge the cars’ abilities in a live setting.

These are different to the fleet of Lexus sports utility vehicles that Google has outfitted with its self-driving tech: they have been built by Google from the ground up with the goal of self-driving in mind.

According to the website Google set up to explain this phase of the project to the public, the cars don’t even need steering wheels or pedals. They have them for now, though, because Google has deployed them with safety drivers who need to be able to take over in emergency situations, should they arise.

But that’s just a precaution during this testing phase, because the cars are able to remain aware of their circumstances thanks to sensors that can pick up objects, including other cars, pedestrians and cyclists from as far away as the length of “two football fields in all directions”.

That information is fed into the car’s computer, which enables it to navigate the roads safely, says Google.

Google has taken even more steps to ensure the cars’ safety by capping their maximum speed to 25 miles per hour (40km/h to you and me). That’s 10 miles per hour (16km/h) below the official speed limit in Mountain View.

The aim of the project is to allow people who can’t otherwise drive a vehicle to get around easily and safely, and let commuters do something else in traffic while the car does all the driving, which sounds like a brilliant future to us.

If you’d like more information about the project check out Google’s Self-Driving Car Project page.

[Source – Google]