Google’s new fleet of self-driving bubble-mobiles are finally taking to the roads around the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, and Google is giving artists a chance to turn them into rolling works of art.
Unlike the first few techno-koala prototypes that Google unveiled earlier this year, this latest batch of self-driving cars comes with a removable steering wheel, brake, and accelerator pedals, and have a “safety driver” on board to make sure everything goes as planned. Each tiny electric car still maxes out at 25 MPH, so the areas they can drive in are limited to residential and business areas in the city.
With this first run of prototypes, Google is also looking for California artists to submit designs for the cars that will be featured on the fleet for a month or more. The theme is “my community, my neighbors”, and Google will accept entries between July 11 and August 30, with 10 designs selected later in the year and the artists getting a ride in one of the prototypes slathered with their design. More details here.
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