Photo: Google
Yeah, it’s hard to believe and it fooled us too at first. The Google autonomous car prototype you see below is different from what you saw earlier. We know, the photo is taken in the same spot from the same angle and the car still looks like a koala’s head on wheels, but it comes with some minor aesthetic changes.
A recent update from Google says the first autonomous vehicle we saw in May this year was an early mockup and they worked a lot to improve it. The engineers have now added the “typical car parts”, like, you know, the steering wheel, brakes and even headlights and turn indicators, which are said to work along with the autonomous features.
Well, looking at the photo now, you can really see the car has real headlights, turn signals, proper mirrors and that big beacon on top is smaller now and contained in a round case.
There are no photos from the interior or from the back for now but the company said the vehicle should begin real-life testing on the streets of Northern California next year, with safety drivers continuing to oversee the car’s behavior and use the manual controls as needed.
Until then, the autonomous car will continue tests zipping around Google’s test track. We really hope they’ll do something about the design because, look at it... How the hell could you build the future of personal transportation with a koala head that's wearing a strange hat?
Well, looking at the photo now, you can really see the car has real headlights, turn signals, proper mirrors and that big beacon on top is smaller now and contained in a round case.
There are no photos from the interior or from the back for now but the company said the vehicle should begin real-life testing on the streets of Northern California next year, with safety drivers continuing to oversee the car’s behavior and use the manual controls as needed.
Until then, the autonomous car will continue tests zipping around Google’s test track. We really hope they’ll do something about the design because, look at it... How the hell could you build the future of personal transportation with a koala head that's wearing a strange hat?
Google News