Google to build driverless cars

Google has designed a vehicle that requires no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver.

The internet technology giant said in a blog post that 100 prototypes of the electric two-seaters that will still retain manual controls will be built and tested for safety beginning this summer.

Testing on the fully driverless model is to take place “in California in the next couple of years,” the Silicon Valley-based company wrote.

Google has worked for years to develop self-driving cars that use an array of sensors and computers to navigate streets, but Tuesday’s blog post confirmed speculation that it was manufacturing its own vehicles rather just modifying those made by other carmakers.

Google said that by eliminating driver error and fatigue, their cars will be safer than human-controlled vehicles.

Sensors on the Google cars will be able to detect objects more than 200 metres in the distance, the company said. The speed of the first vehicles will be capped at 40 kilometres per hour.

“We’re light on creature comforts,” Google wrote of the inside of the cars. “But we’ll have two seats (with seatbelts), a space for passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a screen that shows the route - and that’s about it.”

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