Self-driving cars are the technology that labeled Google as a company who tries to turn science-fiction into reality. The cars have been in testing for many years and are expected to hit the market within a decade.

After 500,000 miles of road tests, Google’s self-driving car team gave New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger unusually deep access for a profile this week. It’s still unclear whether the larger idea of autonomous cars will work at all — the most optimistic estimate seems to be that they will come to market in five to 10 years.