Google increased the production of autonomous vehicles and hired the former director of Hyundai

On the roads of California and Austin (Texas) travels several dozen experimental cars Google, but soon they will be more. Much more. Perhaps, Google even yourself to mass-produce and sell such cars.

When the double baby from Google just introduced last year, it was issued a ruling on the plan for the production of one hundred pieces to the end of 2015. The expansion program is now упомянула Sarah Hunter (Sarah Hunter), director of the legal regulation of GoogleX, speaking before the Public Utilities Commission of California (California Public Utilities Commission).

Literally, Hunter said: "We're doing a few hundred of these machines ... We make them to our team really has mastered the production of unmanned vehicles with zero».

A month ago it became known about создании the new company Google Auto LLC , which will be engaged in the production of vehicles with the steering wheel and pedals.

Previously, Google says it has no plans to produce and sell itself autonomous vehicles. Now such a possibility is not excluded. Speaking to a large audience of politicians and officials of regulatory bodies Sarah Hunter said: "The model in which we produce cars for sale will require the same type of chargers for electric vehicles, which exist today. Our prototype is now fully electric. This does not mean that in case of mass production of the car is equipped with a hybrid power plant ».

At the moment, all the cars Google are produced on the outskirts of Detroit by a third-party contractor Roush. In the case of the transition to mass production will have to equip the production facility is much larger size.

Sarah Hunter also revealed some details about how to operate the current prototypes. They are equipped with three buttons: 1) Go; 2) Slow to slow down and stop; 3) Fast stop. This tour is given by voice commands into the microphone: "I was brought in Safeway», - the car itself is paving the route.

Currently, cars need very detailed digital map of the area where the objects marked with centimeter precision: Line marking, traffic lights, etc. Maximum speed is artificially limited to 40 km / h. Machinery is not ready to go on the road without a driver for secure living, and current law prohibits it.

However, unmanned vehicles are improving very quickly, so that by the beginning of mass production should prepare now. It is not surprising that Google is expanding production of cars and automotive business develops. Just today it was announced that the project for the management of road Google Auto наняла John Krafcik (John Krafcik), industry veteran and former executive director of the American division of Hyundai (by the way, a very successful division). John Krafcik - an engineer by training, from 1990 to 2004, he worked at Ford, which eventually became the chief engineer for the production of SUV Expedition and Navigator.

Some experts believe that without unmanned vehicles mankind in general will not be able to cope with the increasing number of vehicles on the roads, "If global growth continues at the same pace, we will have 3, 4 billion cars on the planet in 2050 - says Travis Kalanik (Travis Kalanick), executive director of Uber. - This is clearly unacceptable. This is partly why we are thinking how to stop karmageddon. " Uber conjunction with Google plans to manage the service of unmanned vehicles taxi.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/262460/