This is the Next Phase of Google's Self-Driving Cars

Google has begun building specially designed prototypes of its self-driving car.

"They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them," says Chris Urmson, director of Google's self-driving car project. "Our software and sensors do all the work."

The prototypes vehicles were designed with safety as the primary concern. Sensors effectively remove blind spots, and they can detect objects to a distance of "more than two football fields in all directions." The speed of these first cars has also been capped at 25 mph.

"We’re planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and later this summer, our safety drivers will start testing early versions of these vehicles that have manual controls," Urmson continues. "If all goes well, we’d like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years."

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