Jacob Aron, technology reporter
Google's self-driving cars this week passed a new milestone after the web giant asked a blind man to take the wheel. The above video, posted yesterday on Google+, shows Steve Mahan take a trip to a Taco Bell restaurant before returning home - but Mahan is 95 per cent blind, far beyond the legal driving limit.
Mahan, who is head of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center in California, made the journey without having to touch the wheel or pedals thanks to Google's driverless car technology, which uses an array of video, radar and laser sensors to constantly scan the road. The car in this video followed a pre-programmed route, successfully navigating junctions and corners without incident, but Google's autonomous driving fleet has racked up more than 200,000 miles of driving, including unplanned journeys on public roads.
Self-driving cars could make a huge difference to the lives of visually-impaired people, says Mahan."There are some places you cannot go, some things that you really cannot do," he says. "Where this would change my life is to give me the independence and the flexibility to go to the places I both want to go and need to go when I need to do those things."
Google's video concludes by labelling Mahan "Self-Driving Car User #0000000001", but the company has previously cautioned it will be many years before such vehicles are available to the public. Want one sooner? Read more in our in-depth look into the current state of driverless cars.
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