Google makes breakthroughs in self-driving car testing.

Waymo, the self-driving car development division of Alphabet Inc. (Google's parent company), has just announced the next phase of testing. Accordingly, Google-branded cars will be fully autonomous, driving without human assistance.

Google's self-driving car has completed 5.6 million kilometers of testing.

In previous testing phases, with over 5.6 million kilometers driven on real-world roads, self-driving cars still required human assistance. The fact that Google-branded cars will be completely autonomous and drive without human assistance represents a new breakthrough for the project.

After more than 5.6 million kilometers of testing, this project has far surpassed the distances covered by competitors developing self-driving cars such as Ford and Uber.

However, the two aforementioned companies possess superior automobile manufacturing capabilities and user networks – areas where Waymo has yet to develop.

To kick off the new experiment, the project team is using self-driving cars in a taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona.

In the next crucial testing phase, self-driving cars will operate without human supervision.

John Krafcik (formerly a senior manager at Ford), now the project director, said that the on-demand self-driving car service is planned to be Waymo's first commercial operation.

During his appearance at a high-level conference on autonomous vehicle technology in Lisbon, Portugal, John debated how self-driving vehicles could replace personal cars – a topic that poses a threat to the automotive industry.

"Clearly, the potential of ride-sharing services is enormous, and Waymo's pioneering autonomous vehicle technology provides customers with a comprehensive driverless ride experience," John Krafcik confidently stated.

Google Car during a test run - Photo: Digital Trends

Google began working on its self-driving car project in 2008. By 2015, users could experience test drives of the first cars from Waymo's project.

The self-driving car can reach a top speed of 40 km/h. It is also equipped with devices such as radar, a sensor camera, and a control camera, and is controlled via smartphone.

According to TTO/Carmagazine