Google announced last week that its self-driving cars have undergone 300,000 miles of testing, without experiencing a single accident.
The company has twelve cars on the road, including a Lexus RX450h that it added to the fleet a few months ago.
More testing remains to be done, the company says. It has yet to test its cars on snow-covered roads; and needs to program them to interpret out-of-the-ordinary situations like temporary construction signals.
Hitherto, the team in charge of developing the cars has only used them in pairs. They are soon to start using them singly, for use in their daily lives. "This is an important milestone, as it brings this technology one step closer to every commuter," the company said in its announcement. "One day we hope this capability will enable people to be more productive in their cars. For now, our team members will remain in the driver's seats and will take back control if needed."
Besides freeing up people's time when they're in their cars, Google's stated aims in developing self-driving cars are to reduce both carbon emissions and traffic accidents.
The company says that it is confident that automated cars will promote ridesharing and highway trains.
Google cites a World Health Organization that 1.2 million people die in road accidents every year. Automated cars, the company believes its cars could cut that number by as much as half by eliminating the room for driver error.
The cars are operated by a system that collects data using video cameras, radar sensors, and a laser range finder. The data is then processed by Google data centers.
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