Google Gets Plates For A Car That Drives Itself

Today, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles has issued a license plate to the first car in America to be driven by a computer.

The Toyota Prius, re-designed by Google, has successfully completed tests and was deemed roadworthy, thanks to legislation passed in Nevada last year.

Google Drive?

The self-driving Prius was issued special red licence plate, featuring an infinity symbol next to the number “001”.

“The unique red plate will be easily recognized by the public and law enforcement and will be used only for licensed autonomous test vehicles. When there comes a time that vehicle manufacturers market autonomous vehicles to the public, that infinity symbol will appear on a green license plate,” explained department director of Nevada DMV Bruce Breslow.

Google’s car is able to drive itself thanks to a combination of video cameras, radar sensors, laser rangefinders and a database of information collected from manually driven cars. It uses proprietary technology, developed by Stanford professor and Google vice president Sebastian Thrun.

According to the BBC, engineers at Google have previously tested the car on the streets of California, including crossing San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge and cruising down Las Vegas Strip.

The licence is possible because of the new Nevada law passed last year that authorised use of self-driven cars on the state’s roads. The law went into effect this month, and Google wasted no time in getting its car on the road.

According to Techradar, the company had to pay $1 million insurance premium to enjoy the privilege of being the first. Although the car is fully automatic, it requires two professional drivers to be in the vehicle at all times, in case it decides to break the first law of robotics.

Other than serving as a playpen for cars of the future, Nevada is famous for being a tax haven for companies like Apple, Cisco and Microsoft.

Legislation to regulate autonomous cars is being considered in other states, including Google’s home state of California.

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