A major development to self-driving cars may change the way we will drive in the future. Google, the leading company in self-driving technology, has changed its development plan. It had driverless cars built by car factories, but now will start building its own cars.
Google has started to build some kinds of experimental electric self- driving cars that look like a Smart car or Fiat 500. There is no steering wheel (方向盘)，gas pedal (油门) or brake (刹车). The only thing a human passenger controls is a red "e-stop" button for fear stops and a start button. The car's only "friendly" face is designed to make it help people accept self-driving technology.
Google workers took part in a long experiment, in which they used self-driving cars for their usual travel to work. No accident happened, but Google's heads realized that depending on a human passenger to drive in an emergency wouldn't work because they may be reading, working, or sleeping. Now the self-driving car drives by itself if the driver takes his hands off the wheel for over ten seconds.
Google's self-driving cars are now limited to a speed of 25 miles per hour for safety reasons. The cars aren't allowed to drive on highways. However, a Google engineer said that once the cars are solved to run safely, we can drive at the speed of 50, even 80 miles an hour.
Google recently announced that its cars had covered 700,000 miles of public roads, and they were now running in busy city streets. People who love self-driving cars say this will improve transport by making roads safer, cutting down accident, and making less pollution.
