How Google's self-driving car project rose from a crazy idea to a top contender in the race toward a driverless future (GOOG, GOOGL)

Google's self-driving car project was started in 2009 on one premise: build an autonomous vehicle by 2020. 

Now, it's seven years later, and Google's test cars have driven two million miles in four cities around the nation and have learned everything from how to honk politely to how to sense cyclists and pedestrians. 

But Google has also failed to commercialize its cars so far — falling behind competitors like Uber and Tesla, despite being the first company to put the cars on the road — and has lost some of its best talent to other companies in the industry.

As Google prepares to spin out the project as its own company under the Alphabet umbrella, here's a look back at the company's progress in building the world's first fully autonomous vehicle.

SEE ALSO: Google's self-driving car project is losing out to its competitors

Google launched its self-driving car project in 2009 under the leadership of Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford University professor who is lauded as the founder of the autonomous car. While at Google, Thrun led several projects at Google's X research lab, including Google Glass and Street View. Thrun has since left Google and is now the founder of education startup Udacity.

Source: Udacity

Thrun first began his research on driverless vehicles at Stanford, leading a student and faculty team that designed the Stanley robot car. The car won a $2 million prize at the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge for driving 132 miles in the desert on its own.

Source: The New York Times

Google began its project with six Toyota Priuses and an Audi TT that drove through the streets of Mountain View, California. It hired a handful of people with perfect driving records to sit behind the wheel, a position it still hires for seven years later.

Source: The New York Times, Business Insider

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Contributer : Tech Insider http://ift.tt/2ezCkjt

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