Confirming the ability of Google engineers to create a range of technologies, the company revealed Saturday it has developed a fleet of auto-drive cars manned by operators that just completed a
140,000-mile trek through California. The cars drove from the company's Mountain View campus to its Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. These cars drove down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and made it all
the way around Lake Tahoe.
The cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to identify other traffic, as well as detailed maps to navigate the road ahead. The feet made
possible by Google’s data centers that can process enormous amounts of information gathered by the cars when mapping their terrain.
New York Times reporter John Markoff rides through
Mountain View, Calif., in the back seat of a car driven by Google's artificial-intelligence software. View the video
here.