Google Will Finally Test Self-Driving Cars in a Place Where It Rains

Google ’s self - driving car havelogged over 1.4 million miles , but only on the street of two cities : Mountain View , California and Austin , Texas . Now Google isadding a third public test running . The latest urban center to welcome our robot car overlords is Kirkland , Washington . A place that has conditions !

Kirkland is just across Lake Washington from Seattle ( and next door to Microsoft ’s campus in Redmond ) . The small city has one particular tone you might carry from a urban center in the Pacific Northwest — rain , and lots of it . For the first time , this will tolerate Google to test its car in less - than - idealistic driving atmospheric condition .

Yes , Austin has rain , too , and sometimes nose candy and ice-skating rink . But the big divergence here is that Kirkland ’s mood is consistently showery — wet , slippy roads will be the norm , not the exception . This could be Google ’s cock-a-hoop challenge yet . We ’ve seen some example of independent vehicles in the rain , though not Google ’s specifically , andit ai n’t pretty .

Starship Test 9

It ’s not just mostly cloudy skies and perpetual sprinkling that will help Google improve its cars ’ algorithm . embark a whole new city will allow Google to dally around with a new circle of urban infrastructure : stoplights , signage , crossover , etc . For example , accord to Google ’s January report , released yesterday , the company specifically chose Austin because the stoplight are horizontal , not vertical .

Heading to Washington also gives Google another state where it can help mould morefriendly self - driving regulation , especially sinceCalifornia has proved to a small less welcomingthan originally thought .

[ Seattle TimesviaThe Verge ]

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