Google Unveils Self-Driving Car with a “Friendly” Face – Watch Video

With no brakes, no steering wheel, and no driver, the new self-driving car unveiled by Google at the Recode Code Conference on Tuesday, may require a lot of trust and faith on the part of the public.

In should come as no surprise then that, when you look at the front of the car, you see a friendly face staring back at you. The design was reportedly intentional in an effort to put passengers more at ease.

Watch Google Self-Driving Car Video below:



“We definitely would like the vehicle to appear friendly,” Chris Urmson, head of the self-driving car project, told Recode. “When you look at the front grill of any car, there’s a lot of thought put into that shape and what kind of emotion it shows. Many of them look like faces. In our case we wanted to find something that’s very Googley. It’s friendly, it’s kind of cute. We hope it fits into neighborhoods.”

With only two buttons inside the two-seater prototype, one for “go” and the other for “start,” the self-driving Google car can be summoned with a mobile app – making it the perfect robotaxi.

In addition to making the car appear more “friendly” and cute, the round shape also gives the sensor at the top better visibility. In the interest of safety, the car was designed with two sets of steering and braking systems to provide redundancy.

But don’t expect to see these on the highway just yet. The current design is intended for operating only at speeds up to 25mph. Google indicated that they plan to have these driverless car prototypes cruising the streets in Mountain View this summer and will likely partner with a major auto manufacturer for any retail versions in the future.