You'd think that if they were going to put a face on the front, the least they could do was make it smile, at least a little bit... (as it drove you helpless to your fiery, mangled-metal doom)

I think that would be great for gated communities and for in town / city driving where one would not go fast. It would be great for programs / businesses like ZipCar since the car drives itself and one would not have to worry about the driving record of the customer.
It reminds me of a simple version of the Smart Fortwo. In its current form, I don't really see a market for it for individuals, IMO.

This is a step or a entire level up that Google NEEDED to make.
Without it people are skeptical and scared of cars that offer automated driving. Making laws about how much computers can do and how much humans can withdraw from the driving experience.
This is the future, like it or not, but you need to see it to accept the next move toward it.
It will be a huge hit when it happens because of the time people will have to be on their phones/tablets while riding in their OWN vehicle to where they want to go. Its just a matter of time...
The time being how long it takes people to accept and get over technology doing what used to make them feel in control of.

Sorry, MzunguMkubwa, there can be an enormous market for this. The elderly often need family members to drive them to destinations. The elderly often go blind. In each of these circumstances, independence can be maintained or regained. With our huge Boomer generation aging, it will be awesome!
Wouldn't the postal person love to have this gizmo. I can think of a ton of uses.
I appreciate Google for their speed and attention to the future. I do wonder how this delightful advance will work in rain, snow and ice.
The article doesn't mention fuel, so I'm thinking it must be electrical?
Thanks for this article Gizmag!

I like that Google spends money on research like this. I'm still a bit skeptic on driverless cars but its clear they are making progress. When was the last time a company like Oracle did cool stuff like this with their massive pile of profits?
I think Google Ventures is an investor in Uber cab service. The coolest things about this is you might not need to actually own one, you could just flag it down through your cell phone and have it drive you where you need to go.

Very cool.

No matter what they claim, I would still at least want the feeling of a little control via an emergency steering wheel! And a brake pedal. People are starting to accept auto braking systems, but I don't know . . It is no use having a "stop" button on the dash if it decides destination reached is halfway up a on-ramp or something.

It's inevitable the petrol-heads will make this a target of ridicule and even worse, they will learn driving strategies to outwit the google-mobile. There will need to be legislation designed to give driverless cars the advantage they deserve.

This is for all the people who cannot react to multiple inputs within 0.3sec and wish to be safe and cuddly in a muppetmobile while they surf facebook and twitter.
Google hits the nail fair and square because muppets are where the moneys at.
Next step is to entice the sub-0.3'ers; and these people need the opposite of safe and cuddly. They will go for something that surpasses the native ability of a formula1 champ, in something that does not look like a muppet.