Google's work on autonomous vehicles has come a long way, and the technology company is showing off its latest results in a new video and statement.
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Though far from a consumer model (and Google will probably never develop and produce its own cars on a large scale), controversy will arise over the lack of human-controlled backup: there is no steering wheel, no pedals, no way for the user to take control back from the car itself.
"We're now exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by building some prototypes; they'll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention," said a Google statement on the official blog.
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"They won't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal... because they don't need them. Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic-we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible-but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people."
Even if the car makes the right choice 99 percent of the time, most users would probably prefer a form of control--perhaps you'd like to decide where to park once your autonomous car got you safely to your destination. These are just prototype models that have no other features like a radios or glove boxes either since they're serving as safe, speed-limited (25mph max) proofs of concept more than anything else, but the lack of human controls brings up an interesting debate nonetheless.
