Google self-driving cars arrive in Austin
fortune.com, by Kirsten Korosec, @kirstenkorosec July 7, 2015, 2:42 PM EDT
It’s the first time since Google launched the project in 2009 that the company has conducted extended testing
outside of California.
Google’s self-driving car experiment has leapt beyond the safety net of Silicon Valley and is now plying the
streets of Austin, Texas.
It’s the first time since Google GOOG -3.22% launched the self-driving car project in 2009 that the company
has conducted extended testing outside of California. Except for the occasional demo, the company has
primarily tested its software in Mountain View, Calif. In Austin, Google is using one of its outfitted Lexus RX450h
sport-utility vehicles—not the new self-driving car of its own design. Another one will arrive later this week.
Google, which to plans introduce self-driving cars to the public by 2020, says it expanded the testing program
so it could experience a place with different driving environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions. The
company also wants to see how different communities perceive and interact with self-driving vehicles.
So why Austin? At first glance, the city seems like an odd choice. However, there are a few aspects about
Austin that make it a suitable testbed for Google—and even a future location for a fleet of shared autonomous
vehicles.
First, there’s the obvious points. Google already has a presence in Austin; it has an office and it’s building
Google Fiber there. “They’re a city that loves innovation, whether it’s in music or food or technology, and we
know they’ll give us some great feedback on how we’re driving,” Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne told
Fortune.
The city, it turns out, is also laid out in a way that could make it an ideal market for autonomous cars.
A research report released in May by Barclays analyst Brian A. Johnson imagines how society would operate
25 years from now if everything stayed the same except that the majority of vehicles produced were fully
autonomous. The report makes some bold predictions: U.S. auto sales would plummet, vehicle ownership would
fall 50%, while opportunities in fleet management, tech and mapping would spring up.
According to the report, the rise of shared autonomous vehicles could have an even bigger impact in exurban
areas and cities like Austin, Texas, which have a compact urban core and surrounding sprawl. Researchers at
the University of Texas, who ran simulation models based on actual trips in Austin, found that every shared
autonomous vehicle on the road could displace nine traditional cars, according to the report. At the same time,
each SAV would travel 63,335 miles, about five times the annual mileage of a traditional family car, the report
says.
Austin is also home to at least one other mobility company: Car2Go. The car-sharing company, which is housed
under Daimler’s mobility services subsidiary, connects members with Smart cars. It has more than 1 million
registered members in 29 cities around the world. In Austin, there are at least 300 cars in its fleet, according to
Car2Go’s website.
Automakers are in a race to develop self-driving tech that will turn drivers into passengers. Audi, Daimler’s
Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and Tesla all are developing autonomous driving features. A number of companies,
including Audi, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, Delphi Automotive, Google, and Nissan have permits through a
California Department of Motor Vehicle program to test self-driving cars. (Back to links page)
