Google Autonomous Car Testing Starts In Washington State

There are some hoops to jump through to get autonomous car testing underway in states like California. Washington State has no regulations for autonomous car testing, which means there are little or no hoops to contend with. This is one reason why Google has announced that its self-driving cars will begin testing in Washington State.

The lack of regulation makes testing easy and Google wants to test its vehicles in rain and on hilly terrain. With rain being very rare in California, any wet weather testing has to be done outside the state. In Washington State Google doesn't have to share testing data or get permits.

Washington State is now the third state where Google is testing autonomous cars along with California and Austin, Texas. Google has a campus in Kirkland, Washington where the testing is taking place. Rain is a concern for autonomous cars because the range and accuracy of lidar sensors is reduced in rain.

Rain also reduces vision of on-board cameras and can create reflection and glare that confuses autonomous systems. Interestingly, a new bill is in the Washington legislature that would create a testing ground for autonomous cars where they wouldn't need a human driver and would be exempt from some rules of the road.

SOURCE: The Guardian