--- description: Google’s self-driving cars are taking to the open road in the coming months. title: Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Will Hit the Road This Summer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f1f5ce57d1a8efb/6987efdb428a9ece57ccb6ea/google-car.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Will Hit the Road This Summer by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 15, 2015 4:08 PM CUT  Google's self-driving vehicle Google's self-driving vehicleGoogle by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 15, 2015 4:08 PM CUT Google’s self-driving cars are taking to the open road in the coming months. The company [announced](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/self-driving-vehicle-prototypes-on-road.html "undefined") Friday that its compact prototype vehicle will begin driving on public streets in Mountain View, Calif. this summer. Though the cars are autonomous, each will be manned by a safety driver aboard who can use a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal and brake pedal if need be. The vehicles’ speed will be capped at 25 miles per hour. The arrival of the Google-built cars on public roads follows Google’s extensive tests of a fleet of Lexus SUVs the company turned into self-driving vehicles. Those cars have driven nearly one million miles autonomously and are now traveling about 10,000 miles per week. Earlier this week, Google revealed that its self-driving cars have been involved in [11 minor accidents](http://time.com/3854528/google-self-driving-cars-accidents/ "undefined") over the last six years, though the company says they were all the fault of other human drivers that collided with Google’s vehicles. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/"},"headline":"Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Will Hit the Road This Summer","datePublished":"2015-05-15T16:08:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:05:17.498Z","description":"Company's tiny sedan will roam Mountain View autonomously","url":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/","keywords":["Tech","Google","cars","Autos","self-driving cars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f1f5ce57d1a8efb/6987efdb428a9ece57ccb6ea/google-car.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f1f5ce57d1a8efb/6987efdb428a9ece57ccb6ea/google-car.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google's self-driving vehicle","caption":"Google's self-driving vehicle","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/","name":"Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Will Hit the Road This Summer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"BMW: Designing the Future","description":"A rare look inside BMW's Los Angeles based consultancy firm, Designworks.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Hs2Hzlg2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-14T20:31:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Hs2Hzlg2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/","duration":"PT6M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3860377/google-self-driving-cars-road/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```