#google

Google is all about advancing technology in order to improve our world and lifestyle, and it appears that they also support any other company that’s pro-technology.

Google’s mission towards to mass market autonomous vehicles took another step forward this week when they were granted a patent for a method of controlling the self-driving car. The patent details how the vehicle can transition from being human-driven to autonomous mode.

An example of early adoption, Toyota Motor Sales launched its brand new “Toyota USA” page on Google+ on November 7, 2011.

Google isn’t alone in its plan to bring autonomous cars to roads near you. There is now at lest one other major player, with the National University of Defense Technology in China having built a self-driving project of its own.

If you live in America, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to still favor Yahoo over Google. Over the recent years, Google has evolved from a search engine service to providing free email, navigation, maps, operating systems, image hosting, social networks…you get the picture. The technology that Google has created is, for the most part, beneficial to human kind, though some question the comapny’s practices of privacy and security.

A state made famous on for its loose laws and even looser morality, you can now add another item to the list of things you’re allowed to do in Nevada: ride along in a driverless car.

In a consistent effort to be, well, less evil (or at the very least sightly less malicious), Google is offering its employees free electric car charging at its Googleplex headquarters.

Apple has officially rejected any inclusion of DUI checkpoints in its iOS apps. In this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple updated its app store to prohibit applications informing users of DUI checkpoints.

Could the motor city be turning into tech town usa? In a CNN Money special, Detroit’s automotive related technology boom is highlighted for its recent increase technology related jobs. Tech job openings rose 82% in Detroit, with companies like Google and Ford hiring engineers en masse.

You already use Google to find things on the Internet. So it’s not surprising to hear that your car will be using technology developed by the search engine company to find its way around too.

After secretly testing a fleet of autonomous cars in California, Google is now looking to shift driverless ‘driving’ into gear in Nevada, lobbying state officials to allow the vehicle to be legally driven on public roads.

Mapping out electric car charging stations onto an open source format like Google Maps seems like something totally self-evident, but the Department of Energy and Google are undertaking an official initiative to overlay EV charge points onto of a mapping application.

When the robot uprising comes, Sebastian Thrun will be accused of sympathizing with the androids. The Google engineer and leader of its driverless car project believes that by replacing the follies and foibles of human driving, its computer-controlled cars could save a million lives every year.

Apocalypse jokes aside, Thrun, a professor of computer science at Stanford University, became dedicated to the concept of saving lives when he lost his best friend to a car accident when he was 18. He discussed the implications that driverless cars could have at TED Talks, the conference for new ideas. In addition to saving lives, Thrun said, transport would be far quicker and more efficient, with less fuel wasted and a complete elimination of traffic jams. Humans in the future “will look back at us and say how ridiculous it was that humans were driving cars.”

Google’s automated cars have so far covered 140,000 miles in a variety of driving conditions, with nary an accident. Click the jump to see a Toyota Prius navigate the mean streets of Anytown, USA, and just imagine how much more time we can spend texting on our cell phones once the robots take over our daily commute. I for one welcome our new robot overlords!

In luxury mad China, the most coveted brand by consumers is not Rolex or Apple, but BMW. A survey conducted by Clear Asia, a consulting firm based in Hong Kong, polled 2,500 Chinese consumers about their favorite brands, and the Bavarian auto maker came out on top, ahead of the luxury watch giant and the consumer electronics firm.

For electric car owners, finding a place to plug-in when you’re on the road can be a challenge. Sure you can just ‘borrow’ some energy by unplugging the Coke machine at your local gas station, but those standard output outlets can take eight hours to get your car fully juiced.