We have previously blogged about the autonomous cars, and it appears that Google is taking a turn from the prior destination. Although there was testing with autonomous cars that provided for drivers to take control in certain circumstances, Google is now testing cars without steering wheels or brakes!  John Markoff wrote about this for the NY Times on May 27, 2014 in Google’s Next Phase In Driverless Cars: No Steering Wheel or Brake Pedals.   This version is very high tech, with only 2 buttons for the driver-one to start the vehicle and one for emergency stops. In addition-there’s an app for that!  The car is summoned via an app on the passenger’s smart phone, and the destination is plugged in through the app.  Other than that, you can sit back and relax!

What kind of vehicle is this car of the future?

The vehicles will have electronic sensors that can see about 600 feet in all directions. Despite that, they will have rearview mirrors because they are required by California’s vehicle code, Dr. Urmson said. The front of the car will be made from a foamlike material in case the computer fails and it hits a pedestrian. It looks like a little bubble car from the future, streamlined to run by itself — a big change from the boxy Lexus SUV Google has been retrofitting the last few years with self-driving technology.

The cars have a top cruising speed of 25 mph, thus limiting their applicability to certain areas, such as cities.He wrote a second article about his test drive in one of these driverless cars, in which he offers more inisights into this car’s features.  This second article, The Google Car Takes a Step Away From Boring can be accessed here.

This design gives a whole new meaning to the issue of driving-think about the application for those elders who still may be able to decide where they want to go, but no longer can drive themselves.  Stay tuned, and for now, stay sharp behind the wheel.