When rumours leaked out about this last August it was suggested that it was only at the planning-on-paper phase but it has now been confirmed and better yet, there is a prototype for the first version of the self-driving car. Taa Daa…

Ok, so it does look like a bubble with wheels and unless you are a smartcar lover you may not find this car so sexy, but you would be wrong. All the sexiness is in the technology that has gone into achieving this masterpiece.

While this is not the first car to be able to drive itself, it is the first one to be actually made to drive itself rather than being retrofitted with the automation technology. That is pretty spectacular when you really think about how much goes into driving safely in a busy street.

Think of all the time you will save not having to drive yourself or have forced conversations with your taxi driver! You can now do your make up in the car safely, if that is your sort of thing, and because this little baby is fitted with a silent electric engine, you can even get a head start on all those important business calls before you reach the office.

Alternatively, if you feel like this is simply too productive, you could grab the extra Z’s you so badly wanted this morning while you are driven peacefully to your morning appointment – be it with the office or the library.

Google will begin testing over the summer in the US with just 100 cars and, while the test models will be fitted with manual controls in case of glitches, once the car starts to become more mainstream these will be removed and leave us with our very own, fully automated vehicles over which we have almost zero control.

Safer? Hmm…. humans are risky things, it’s true, but can a collection of computers replace our all powerful and mysterious brains?

[Source: The Verge]