Google announced on Friday that its self-driving car will be ready to start cruising the streets of Mountain View, California this summer. This will be the first time that Google will be taking its own cars, that it built from the ground up, onto public roads. The company has been test-driving these self-driving vehicles since 2009, and aims to make them available this summer.
Chris Urmson, the director of Google’s self-driving car project, has acknowledged that Google cars have been in 11 fender benders, since the company started testing over six years ago. However, Urmson says that “not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident.”
While the Google self-driving car isn’t considered to be a “luxury” car, it’s more about comfort. The Google self-driving car will have two seats with seatbelts, a space for passengers belongings, a screen that shows the route, and, of course, buttons to start and stop the car. Google’s self driving cars are able to operate without a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal.
What’s different about Google’s self-driving car is its safety features. Google’s self-driving car will have sensors that remove blind spots, which will be helpful while driving on intersections. The capped speed for the first vehicles will be at 25 mph. Later this summer, Google’s safety drivers will be testing a hundred prototype vehicles.
Urmson said, “We’re looking forward to learning how the community perceives and interacts with the vehicles, and to uncovering challenges that are unique to a fully self-driving vehicle — e.g., where it should stop if it can’t stop at its exact destination due to construction or congestion.”
Google’s Lexus SUVs and other cars have driven almost 1 million miles on autopilot and are averaging 10,000 self-driven miles a week.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.