Google Expands Self-driving Testing To Texas

Google Inc. is expanding its autonomous vehicle testing to Austin, Texas — a shift from its testing in Silicon Valley. The search-engine giant said a self-driving Lexus RX450h SUV is undergoing testing in Austin.

The company primarily has been testing vehicles since 2009 around Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company said it’s now time get experience in places with different driving environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions.

Over the last few weeks, Google drivers have been piloting the vehicle around a few square miles north and northeast of downtown Austin and creating a detailed map of the streets along with lane markers, traffic signals, curb heights, "keep clear" zones, and other information.

Last month, Google said it had started testing prototype Michigan-built driverless cars on city streets in California. But the company said that even though the prototypes are meant to be fully autonomous — and not have steering wheels or pedals — the prototypes will have those devices. In order to comply with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules, they can’t travel above 25 miles per hour.

Google has started disclosing when its vehicles are involved in crashes. On July 1, the company said it was involved in two minor crashes in June.

Back to NAFA Connection