It’s undeniable the Google’s autonomous driving tech is pretty awesome—impressive enough that even a blind man can travel behind the wheel of one of the web giant’s self-driving cars. And there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding it, as Google became the first company to gain the legal right to test autonomous cars Nevadan roads, and autonomous cars were recently legalized in California. But, as a recently published editorial by Johann Muller in Forbes discusses, the successes of—and the hype surrounding—Google’s self-driving developments don’t necessarily pose a threat to the conventional auto industry.

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Post tags: accident prevention, auto industry, automakers, autonomous car, autonomous vehicle, google car, google self-driving patent, google self-driving prius, google self-driving technology, self-driving car, self-driving technology, self-driving vehicles

California Governor Jerry Brown just signed a new bill that allows autonomous cars on the state’s roads. Bill SB1298 was originally drafted by Democrat Senator Alex Padilla to help establish safety standards and rules for the operation of autonomous vehicles in California. “Today we’re looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow’s reality—the self-driving car,” Brown stated.

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Post tags: automotive, autonomous cars, electric cars, Google, google self-driving car, jerry brown, self-driving car, Toyota, toyota prius

In June 2011, Google successfully lobbied Nevada legislators to make driverless cars legal on state roads. Now California has followed suit by passing a bill that could make the sunshine state the second in the United States to approve self-driving cars on its roads. The bill has already been passed unanimously by the state senate and will now go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law.

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Post tags: California, cleantech, driverless vehicles, eco design, Google, green design, green transportation, nevada, self-driving car, sustainable design

Google and Volvo‘s self-driving cars have been making headlines with the number of miles they’ve driven without a traditional driver at the wheel. Now Stanford’s Dynamic Design Lab has teamed up with Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Lab to create a self-driving Audi TTS named Shelly – and it just hit 120 mph on a racetrack! Unlike Google’s Toyota Prius or the long-distance self-driving cars from Volvo, Stanford’s Audi TTS focuses its attention on all-out-speed.

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Post tags: AUDI, Audi TT, car safety, google prius, self-driving car, stanford university, toyota prius, volkswagen, volvo

Two mechanical engineers at MIT are developing a new semiautonomous safety system that automatically steers a vehicle around obstacles in the event that the driver does not manually take control. Sterling Anderson, a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Karl Iagnemma, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Robotic Mobility Group, have developed a new system that uses an on board camera and laser rangefinder to identify hazards in a vehicle’s environment.

Read the rest of MIT Researchers Develop an Intelligent Co-Pilot Safety System to Help Drivers Avoid Collisions

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Post tags: automotive, autonomous car, autonomous ford, autonomous google prius, autonomous volvo, car safety, MIT, self-driving car, Sterling Anderson

It might be hard to imagine a scenario where the blind could drive safely, where distractions on the road would not be an issue, and even where fuel consumption could be lowered by a computer-operated car which could stop and go more efficiently than a human driver – but Google’s autonomous driving technology could make all of that possible. Google has seven cars (six Priuses and one Audi TT) equipped with radars, lasers and access to a sophisticated database of road information, which have now amassed a combined 200,000 miles of on the road! To celebrate this milestone Google has released a video which introduces us to Steve Mahan, a man with 95% vision loss, as he runs errands in one of their “driverless” cars.

Read the rest of Blind Man Test-Drives Google’s Amazing Self-Driving Car

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Post tags: artificial intelligence, autonomous car, driverless car, google car, google search, GPS technology, green transportation, greener cars, intuitive computer, marissa mayer, sebastian thurn, self-driving car, steve mahan, toyota prius

We have been bringing you lots of news lately on the developments in driverless cars from companies such as Google, Porsche, or even new competitors in China. So we were a little nervous for Google when we heard one of their Priuses had gotten itself into an accident. Google is claiming the crash was caused by the driverless fleet car when a human was manually driving it, but some new details have surfaced that make us question that statement. The story broke when a Jalopnik reader sent in a photo of the accident not far from Google’s Mountain View headquarters, but the picture, showing a Google Prius driver leaning over his car, the driver of the Prius rear-ended by the Google car on her cell phone, and a police officer, didn’t seem to tell the whole story. “Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car,” said Google of the accident. But does that ring true?

Read the rest of UPDATE: Was Google’s Driverless Car Crash Really Due To Human Error?

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Post tags: alternative transportation, driverless car, Google driverless car crash, Google Prius accident, green transportation, Jalopnik Google Prius crash photo, self driving car crash, self-driving car

We’ve been following Google’s awesome self-driving car since the search giant broke the news last fall that it was developing an autonomous, robotic car that drives itself. By using sensors and specially designed artificial intelligence software, the automated cars are supposed to sense objects around them to be able to avoid them, thus making the ride safer and more fuel efficient. But last week, one of Google‘s self-driving cars rear ended another Prius, which set off a chain reaction, ultimately involving a total of five vehicles. As it turns out, a person was manually driving the car, but still — what does this mean for self-driving cars? The accident, and the questions surrounding it, certainly make you wonder if it’s possible for robot vehicles to actually be safer conventional driving.

Read the rest of Google’s Self Driving Car Crashes – But It May Not Be How You Think

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Post tags: automated car technology, electric car, Google, google car crash, google cars, google electric cars, google engineers, google green transportation, google prius, google self-driving car, hybrid, prius, self driving car crash, self driving prius, self-driving car

You may have thought we were years away from people accepting electric cars, much less driverless ones like the Prius fleet Google has been testing on Nevada’s roads. But China has now stepped into the driverless car race with its Hongqi HQ3 driverless car from the National University of Defense Technology, indicating that the global automotive industry may move more quickly than anyone anticipated toward self-driving cars. The Hongqi HQ3 demonstrated last month that not only could it stay on the road (at least during the day and in fair weather), but it could also easily navigate highway traffic at an average speed of 54 miles per hour, passing other cars on the road from Changsha to Wuhan cities, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive.

Read the rest of China’s Hongqi HQ3 Takes on Google’s Driverless Cars with 177-Mile Road Trip

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Post tags: alternative transportation, automatic cars, China's National University of Defense Technology, driverless car, Google driverless cars, green automotive design, green transportation, Hongqi HQ3, self driving prius, self-driving car

Read the rest of The Aeon Project Egg-Shaped Flying Car Envisions the Future of Transportation

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Post tags: Aeon Project Flying Car, Akki Reddy Challa, alternative transportation, concept car, concept vehicle, driverless car, electric car, electric vehicle, Fabien Chancel, flying car, flying concept car, green automotive design, green transportation, interactive vehicle, Michael Harboun, self-driving car

Last year we reported on Google developing a self-driving car that uses artificial-intelligence software to sense anything near it and  makes decisions that would otherwise be made by the driver. Recently, Google finally decided to showcase their invention at the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference in Long Beach. They unveiled their self-driving ride – a Toyota Prius – and showed off its prowess by racing it around the roof of a parking lot.

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Post tags: google car, google self driving car race, google self-driving car, long beach, SARTRE project, self-driving car, Technology Entertainment Design conference, toyota prius

Google is on a roll these days when it comes to green transportation alternatives. Announcing their investment in the Shweeb just over a week ago, news just broke yesterday evening that the famed company has secretly been developing an autonomous, self-driving robot car! Still in its early stages, the robot car project has already set out a small fleet of vehicles across California roads that utilize an artificial-intelligence software able to sense anything near the car and make equivalent decisions made normally by a human driver. While the thought of mass-production in the coming months is a bit premature, this revolutionary idea could give way to incredible environmental and experiential benefits. Engineers behind Google’s project say that the technology could both double the capacity of roads by allowing cars to drive more safely, comfortably and efficiently while closer together; but also allow for cars to be built lighter, in turn reducing carbon costs and fuel consumption.

Read the rest of Google Has Developed a Self-Driving Robot Car, and It Works!

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Post tags: automated car, autonomous google prius, autonomous google prius. Green cars, autonomous prius, google car, google EV, google green, google prius, google robot car, green car, green cars, green transportation, green vehicle, reducing carbon emissions, ridesharing, robot car, robot cars, self driving prius, self-driving car, selfdriving google car, smart car, smart cars

Do you enjoy cars, but feel it’s a bit tedious to actually hold the wheel, step on the gas and shift the gears? No sweat – industrial design studio, Mike and Maaike, has just thing thing – the ATNMBL, a car that drives itself! Did we mention that it comes with a bar?

Read the rest of TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Electric ATNMBL Drives Itself!

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Post tags: atnmbl, autonomobile, electric car, mike and maaike, self-driving car, transportation tuesday