Google has tested cars that drive themselves. These cars, according to Google, have already done thousands of miles all on their own. Engineers at Google pride themselves at having tested a self-driving car on California streets, the company announced.

These cars use radar sensors, a laser range finder, and video cameras that are mounted on the roof in order to ‘see’ other road traffic, said software engineer Sebastian Thrun. At all times, the cars are manned by a trained driver, who is always ready to take control, together with a software expert.

Google has high hopes that the cars have the potential to reduce road traffic as well as reduce the number of accidents experienced today. Mr. Thrun added that the cars had already covered 140,000 miles of road distance. They have managed to cross the iconic Golden Gate bridge of San Francisco, negotiated the famous sloping streets of the city, driven right between Google’s offices, and made successfully around Lake Tahoe.

Engineers recently told New York Times that generally, the highway forays have been incident-free, except for one bump when the car was reported to have been hit from behind near a traffic light stop. Mr. Thrun, in his blog post, insisted that the project’s first priority was safety.

He says that routes are pre-planned, mapped by real drivers, and local police briefed beforehand. But he alluded to figures provided by the World Health Organization, which indicate that 1.2 million people die each year in road accidents. He said that this number could and ought to be reduced.

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