Google has built a small two-seat car that not only drives itself, it doesn’t have steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedal, just a stop and go button, and a top speed of 47 km/h says the Associated Press (AP).
However, under current California regulation, test versions of Google latest invention must have a wheel and pedals, because the Department of Motor Vehicles hasn’t perfected the rules for driver-less vehicles reports AP.
The compact and bubble shaped electric car could be used to ferry people around a corporate campus or a congested downtown area says the company.
Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne told AP the company hopes to build more than 100 prototypes by early 2015, so the Californian Department of Motor Vehicles must write regulations for for the operational use of truly driverless cars by the end of 2014.
Head of the DMV’s drivers less car programme Bernard Soriano told AP the clock just sped up.
“Because of what is potentially out there soon, we need to make sure the regulations are in place that would keep the public safe but would not impede progress,” he says.
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