A prototype vehicle that was built from the ground up to move without any human intervention was unveiled yesterday in the US by Google.
According to the company, its design is adapted to the autonomous driving systems it incorporates and the fact that it will not need a driver to circulate. Thus, in its final version, the two-seater vehicle will not have a steering wheel and brake pedal, but only an "emergency" button, with which passengers will be able to immobilize it in case of a problem.
Although Google has been experimenting with autonomous navigation technologies for years, until now all tests have been carried out in mass-produced cars, to which the necessary modifications have been made.
Google says its self-driving cars should not have the controls of a conventional car, as tests have shown that sudden human intervention in their movement can cause an accident. However, the initial "batch" of prototype two-seaters will have steering and brakes, to meet the requirements of the state of California, where the company is testing, which stipulate that the passenger must be able to take full control of the vehicle at any time.
On the dashboard of the two-seater there is a screen that shows the route and the speed, which cannot exceed 40 km/h. Naturally, the vehicle is equipped with sensors that allow its “autopilot” to understand its position and what is around it, within a radius of several hundred meters.
