14 DAY TRIAL // Google's augmented reality glasses have been stealing the limelight lately, but Google's original shoot-for-the-moon project is still alive and kicking.
If anything, it's getting better, a new self-driving car has been spotted as Google has ditched the Toyota Prius hybrid for an SUV, a Lexus R450h, where the "h" also stands for "hybrid."
The car has been spotted cruising down California's highways, as Wired reports. That's become a regular sight by now, as Google has a large fleet of Priuses in testing. However, this is the first SUV Google has tested on the road, that we know of.
There are reasons for testing with a larger car, the algorithm and equipment have to be adapted for the bigger dimensions if Google ever plans to put its technology into production, which it most certainly does, even though the project may seem futuristic.
But there's more to the new car than its size, people familiar with Google's other self-driving cars will notice that the equipment mounted at top, which houses the cameras, LIDAR and so on, is significantly smaller than before.
One obvious hurdle that the technology has to overcome before being considered for commercial use is the miniaturization of the sensors and the computers that need to read them and drive the car. No one is going to buy a car with a huge tower of equipment on its roof.
Obviously, Google is making progress in this respect as well, hinting that the project is past the initial experimental phase and is now focused on honing the technology, improving its performance and making it more suitable for regular use.
Investors may not be too fond of Google's wild experiments, the few of them that remain, but technology like this has huge applications and a big potential for making money when it's ready to hit the streets.