A blind man has successfully piloted Google’s innovative self-driving car on public streets, increasing the possibility of allowing visually impaired people to drive.
Steve Mahan, a legally blind man from California, was recently been put behind the wheel of Google’s most recent experiment Self-driving Car on the streets, taking all the precautionary measures. Google has uploaded a 3-minute video on YouTube of Steve’s driving experience, including getting a burrito from Taco Bell drive-through.
According to the video description, the self-driving Toyota Prius functions at the same speed as other vehicles on the road and waits at stop traffic signs until the coast is clear. The self-regulated machine follows all the rules of the road along with carefully monitoring programmed drive route guided by GPRS.
“We announced our self-driving car project in 2010 to make driving safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. Having safely completed over 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, we wanted to share one of our favorite moments. Here’s Steve, who joined us for a special drive on a carefully programmed route to experience being behind the wheel in a whole new way. We organized this test as a technical experiment, but we think it’s also a promising look at what autonomous technology may one day deliver if rigorous technology and safety standards can be met,” says Google in its release.
Google has successfully completed more than 320,000km of computer led prototype driving ever the concept of Self-driving car was introduced in 2010. Steve Mahan’s technology car has been labeled as #0000000001 by the Google.
The blind driver Steve Mahan, with his 95 per cent of sight gone, says “There are some places you cannot go, some things that you really cannot do. Where this would change my life is to give me the independence and the flexibility to go the places I want to go and need to go when I need to do those things.”
Watch the video:
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