Google secures patent for driverless cars

Ajit Jain
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:08:11 +0000
Technology, car, driverless cars, eric schmidt, Google, gps, patent, self-drive, sergey brin, vehicle

Credit: epSos.de on Flickr

Google has been awarded a US patent which would allow them to bring self-driving cars to the road. It originally filed for the patent in May. The patent allows for the switching between a human driven mode and one in which a vehicle would drive itself.

This patent is part of a long running vision within Google. A driverless car was first announced by Google in 2010. Google executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, spoke of how he felt self-driving cars would one day be in a better position to drive than humans. Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, considered the possibility of using artificial intelligence, GPS video cameras and radar sensors to develop this driverless car idea.