Google’s Self-Driving Cars Log 3 Million Miles A Day

As it stands, the cars have clocked up more than 1 million miles driving autonomously on public roads, but using simulators, the vehicles are racking up 3 million miles daily.

“Testing on public roads is a vital part of developing our software, allowing us to drive in new environments and come across new experiences”, Google said.

Major automakers, and technology companies led by Google, are racing to develop and sell vehicles that can drive themselves, but they have complained that safety rules are impeding testing and ultimate deployment of such vehicles.

For example, the company adjusted the angle at which its cars make left-hand turns to make them more comfortable for passengers.

As Techradar reports, Google is able to run its cars through a simulator using software and the miles already driven by its fleet to allow cars to do 3-million practice miles a day.

One of Google’s data centers. “That’s the equivalent of circling the equator five times every hour”, the company said. Google then uses playback of the drivers’ actions to predict what scenarios could have happened if the vehicle had been self-driving and uses that to make refinements to its software. Now, the auto is ready to drive itself, though there will be a Google employee on board who can take over if needed. In addition to Kirkland and Mountain View, CA, Google is also testing its autonomous auto technology in Austin, TX.

This is the third site for its autonomous automotive testing: Google has been tinkering with its self-driving cars around its home base of Mountain View, Calif., for six years now, and expanded testing to Austin, Texas last year.

Google said the auto is now ready to take over the driving. The engineers merely change the code and the auto re-drives all the miles that the driverless Google cars have driven in the real world previously. But ensuring that the cars can handle unique traffic conditions safely is a work in progress.