> Google has driven +200K miles on real highways and streets
I have got to say, I am pretty amazed they have managed to swing that. Permission to drive autonomous robot cars around the everyday streets of litigation and safety-obsessed California? An accomplishment of equal size to any one technical challenge in the car's making, I would say!
As I understand, they didn't ask permission. They simply announced one day that they'd been doing it for a year, and then lobbied California to legalize it afterwards. Given the potential benefits of being the state that makes autonomous cars a thing, I imagine it was an easy sell.
I have got to say, I am pretty amazed they have managed to swing that. Permission to drive autonomous robot cars around the everyday streets of litigation and safety-obsessed California? An accomplishment of equal size to any one technical challenge in the car's making, I would say!