Google Self-Driving Cars Will Be Out Sooner Than You Think

Google self-driving cars have been buzzing but to date there seems to be no word on when these advanced vehicles will be seen on the roads. In fact such has gone as far for many to ask if they would ever come out in the open.

Apparently the best person to answer those would be executive chairman Eric Schmidt who was at the Alphabet annual stockholders meeting. Someone from the audience present apparently touched on the matter though Schmidt’s answer concerning Google’s self-driving car was somehow different from the usual upfront replies he makes.

This time around, Schmidt seemed to offer a vague answer on the state of Google’s self-driving cars but nevertheless pointed it to the fact that there were a multitude of factors including regulation issues.

Regulation issues have been known as one of the chief stumbling blocks in the automotive industry though Google did gain approval back in February for the AI car as a legally able ‘driver’.

Then again, what people would want to hear is when Google self-driving cars will actually be seen on the road. Schmidt summed it up by saying that the vehicle would be out “some years, not decades”. He also adds that once they are ready to roll out, Google self-driving cars will be pop up incrementally in select regions.

Right now, Google is testing their AIs in locations like Austin, Mountain View, Phoenix and Kirkland, places which have significantly more parking spaces than New York City or San Francisco.

Parking spaces loom as a key factor where the Google self-driving care is tasked to come up with priority initiatives such as allowing self-driven cars nearer parking slots with the self-driving vehicles able to park themselves farther away and return to pick up its passengers.

But in the end, Schmidt seems pretty aware of the impatience of folks on the Google self-driving cars and somehow pledges to make it all happen as soon as possible.

"It's time to make it legal, to literally be testing it, find the models that work, and offer it," said Schmidt.

Google's autonomous driving project dates back to 2009 which saw them deploy 58 self-driving vehicles on the road. The fleet amassed over 1.6 million miles of autonomous driving since the debut of the project.