Outside of Silicon Valley, the capital of Texas is one the biggest tech hubs in the country, which is one of the reasons that Google seems to favor it when choosing cities for its projects. First it was Google Fiber, and now the company is bringing its self-driving vehicles to Austin. It’s important that Google gather as much data as possible to improve its autonomous vehicle technology, and conducting tests in multiple cities is one of the ways the company is doing that.
Google has announced that its modified Lexus RX 450h driverless vehicles will be hitting the public roads in Austin as the search giant tries to accumulate data on driving conditions across different parts of the country. From Google: “We’ve chosen Austin, Texas, as a new testing location for our project, and one of our Lexus SUVs is there now, with safety drivers aboard, driving a few square miles north and northeast of downtown Austin. It’s important for us to get experience testing our software in different driving environments, traffic patterns and road conditions—so we’re ready to take on Austin’s pedicabs, pickup trucks, and everything in between.” Google revealed that in the month of June, its self-driving cars (Lexus RX 450h) were involved in two human-error accidents, with a total of 14 collisions since they took to the streets in 2009. The prototype cars — which took to public roads in California last month — have not been involved in any accidents until now.
