Self-driving cars might seem like a thing of the future, but not anymore. In October, Google revealed that it had, in fact, developed technology for cars that can drive themselves.
The cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic, as well as detailed maps to navigate the road. Google says its cars have logged over 140,000 miles and have traveled from its Mountain View campus to Santa Monica, across the Golden Gate bridge and even to Lake Tahoe.
If you're eager to snatch one up, however, you'll have to wait a while—Google says the cars aren't yet ready for primetime.
Embarrassing moments, unexplained car crashes, and crazy stunts. You never know what the Google Street View team is going to capture on camera next. If only an 'Undo Button' were in play for those captured here.
Have you checked out Google Labs lately? If not, it's worth a peek. The area, reserved for application and tool prototypes not yet ready for primetime, houses some cool (and crazy) ideas. Past alumni include Google Alerts, the Google Docs suite and Google Reader. Check out these eight Google Labs experiments that we'd like to see go mainstream. Which ones are on your radar?
Mobile searching just got way, way cooler. Google recently unveiled its new Google Goggles visual search tool for Android, bringing a high-tech twist to accessing information on the go.
When you've got thousands of the world's most brilliant engineers spending 20 percent of their time on whatever takes their fancy, cool software is the result.
The origins of iconic tech products. High-tech hotels. The top 10 cities for tech workers. The silliest BlackBerry accessories. Get it all right here and much, much more.
