Dec. 23, 2014—Google announced on Monday that it is looking for partners in the automotive industry to help bring its self-driving car to the market within the next five years, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Google is currently working with automotive suppliers to build a small fleet of prototypes known as “beta one,” with on-road testing of these vehicles is scheduled for early 2015.
As of now, Google said it hopes to work alongside established car manufacturers in creating the product. The company envisions the first model to be of a design that lacks a steering wheel, and has a top speed of 25 MPH, qualifying it as a neighborhood electric vehicle that doesn’t need to meet certain safety requirements of conventional road vehicles.
Google has set its goal to offer a fully autonomous car by 2017.
The self-driving car project is currently at the center of Google X, the same labs that were responsible for developing Google Glass.
