It looks like Google’s self-driving cars could see action in another quartet of US cities some time later this year, at least according to a filing at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Apparently, a certain Chris Urmson, who is director of Google’s self-driving car program, put in a request to renew the Internet giant’s Experimental Authority for radio transmitters operating in the 76 GHz range on January 26th, where these are in all probability the long-range radars that have been outfitted on Google’s prototype self-driving cars.
While the mobile transmitters are currently located in Mountain View, California as well as in Austin over at Texas, it seems as though Google intends to carry out tests in another four more locations. One of them would most likely be Ann Arbor, Michigan, as that is the place where Google posted a vacancy for a Program Manager when it comes to self-driving cars. It does make sense, as Michigan’s winter isn’t as forgiving as in other areas of the country, which means it would provide the perfect environment for Google to test out their self-driving car under adverse conditions. Makes sense, just like the Gimball drone going through a punishing test routine, eh? We will just have to wait for official confirmation on where those four cities will be.
Filed in . Read more about Google. Source: spectrum.ieee.org