If you find yourself in Mountain View, California, in the coming months, keep an eye out for Google's newest self-driving cars.
There may not be many of them, but with their distinctive bubble shape, they'll be easy to spot.
The purpose-built prototype vehicles this summer will leave their initial test phase in the rear-view mirror and take to the public roadways of Google's hometown, Chris Urmson, director of the company's self-driving car program, said in a blog post Friday. He didn't give a precise number, saying just that it would be "a few of the prototype vehicles."
The cars will be driving themselves, but they will also have "safety drivers" aboard who can take over the wheel if necessary. That will be key to allaying worries among pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles that the robo-cars won't be ready for every situation.
Google was dinged at the start of this week over reports that some of its self-driving Lexus vehicles, which have already been on the roads, had gotten into accidents. The company acknowledged that over the past six years its self-driving cars had been involved in 11 "minor" accidents, but countered that there were no injuries, that the self-driving vehicles were not at fault and that certain accidents simply can't be avoided.
Full story at YouTube.