--- description: The Google self-driving car project is training its sites on city streets. title: Watch: The Google Car Navigates City Streets image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfab9a4e37bc5f2d2/69868cd01eebf7a725370a1f/google-self-driving-car.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&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 # Watch: Google's Self-Driving Cars Head to the City  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 28, 2014 3:13 PM CUT  Google Driverless Car The Google Self-Driving Car has been in the works since 2005 after a team of engineers won a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to design an autonomous car. The project, which aims to reduce traffic accidents, has made headway in recent years as states passed laws permitting self-driving cars. Google plans a commercial release between 2017 and 2020. Google Driverless Car The Google Self-Driving Car has been in the works since 2005 after a team of engineers won a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to design an autonomous car. The project, which aims to reduce traffic accidents, has made headway in recent years as states passed laws permitting self-driving cars. Google plans a commercial release between 2017 and 2020.David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 28, 2014 3:13 PM CUT The Google self-driving car project [is training its sights](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-latest-chapter-for-self-driving-car.html "undefined") on city streets. The project’s cars have already logged nearly 700,000 miles, primarily on the freeway around Google’s hometown of Mountain View, Calif. Now, Google is teaching its cars to expertly navigate the streets of Mountain View, overcoming new obstacles like bikers swerving into the lane and crossing guards holding up stop signs, the company said in its first blog update on the project since Aug. 2012. “A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area,” Chris Urmson, director of the project, writes in the post. The Google cars may drive themselves, but a driver still stays in the car to take over if necessary, and Urmson writes that the project is still teaching its cars to perfect the streets of Mountain View before they tackle other towns. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in 2012 you could “count on one hand the number of years until people, ordinary people, can experience this,” [according](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/google-driverless-cars-are-mastering-city-streets "undefined") to the Associated Press. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/79315/google-car-city-streets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/79315/google-car-city-streets/"},"headline":"Watch: Google's Self-Driving Cars Head to the City","datePublished":"2014-04-28T15:13:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:05.712Z","description":"The tech giant's futuristic project is looking to overcome the obstacles of urban driving in Mountain View, Calif. after logging nearly 700,000 miles mostly on freeways","url":"https://time.com/79315/google-car-city-streets/","keywords":["Tech","Google","robotics","self-driving car"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfab9a4e37bc5f2d2/69868cd01eebf7a725370a1f/google-self-driving-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfab9a4e37bc5f2d2/69868cd01eebf7a725370a1f/google-self-driving-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A driver drives a Google Inc. self-driving car in front of the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California on September 27, 2013.","caption":"A driver drives a Google Inc. self-driving car in front of the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California on September 27, 2013.","creditText":"David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images","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/79315/google-car-city-streets/","name":"Watch: Google's Self-Driving Cars Head to the City"}}]}] ```