Google Inc. revealed its driverless car’s first finished prototype. The car’s design is not so different from the one the company first unveiled in May this year, but this new one is fully functional. The new undertaking of the company comes at a moment when Google is putting efforts into expanding reach outside its major search engine business and looking for alternative ways for generating revenue.
Google said in a statement, cited by Daily Mail: “Today we’re unwrapping the best holiday gift we could’ve imagined: the first real build of our self-driving vehicle prototype.” As reported by MarketWatch, the company also shared: “We’re going to be spending the holidays zipping around our test track, and we hope to see you on the streets of Northern California in the new year.”
The project of a self-driving car was first announced by the U.S.-based company four years ago. It was the first project to come from what would eventually be the Google X research and development lab.
The driverless car is not the first project of the lab, as the latter is also working on the smart eyewear called Google Glass, as well as on nanoparticles for cancer detection.
Google also revealed that the vehicle will be tested for a “while longer”. The company is considering whether to remove the temporary steering wheel and manual controls once given the green light by the California law.
Google is currently working on its own prototypes, but it is also looking for a partner to work in collaboration with in order to release its self-driving cars to the market in the next half a decade.
The company is to put the vehicle on a test track, including a simulation of busy city streets with traffic lights and construction zones.
Google Inc. was up 2.36% to close at $532.30 per share yesterday. The company is valued at $358.57 billion. According to CNN Money, the 43 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google have a median target of $640.00, with a high estimate of $750.00 and a low estimate of $530.00. The median estimate represents a +20.23% increase from the last price of $532.30.
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