Google has claimed that they have made major progress in teaching and programming their self-driving cars and getting them ready to handle real world risks.
According to Cnet, Chris Urmson, director of the self-driving car project, wrote in a blog post that they still have lots of problems to solve, including teaching the car to drive more streets in Mountain View before we tackle another town.
But thousands of situations on city streets that would have stumped them two years ago can now be navigated autonomously, he said.
Thanks to their new and improved software, the vehicle can detect hundreds of distinct objects simultaneously like pedestrians, buses, a stop sign held up by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making gestures that indicate a possible turn.
A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human physically can't, and it never gets tired or distracted, he added.
