Last week, we crossed the million mile mark for our project.  Our software has now self-driven the equivalent of 75 years of typical U.S. adult driving!  Along the way, we’ve navigated more than 200,000 stop signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and seen 180 million vehicles—with several thousand traffic cones, some fluttering plastic shopping bags, and a rogue duck thrown in for good measure.  

We’ve come a long way since +Larry Page first challenged us to demonstrate that self-driving technology had long-term potential. Back in 2009, he gave us two audacious goals. The first was to drive 100,000 miles on public roads; in 2009, this was about 10x more miles than had ever been completed by any autonomous driving team.  The second was to drive 10 sets of 100 interesting miles—well known California routes that included crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, navigating the curves of Lombard Street in San Francisco, and traversing the 200+ traffic lights of major boulevard El Camino Real.  We met those early goals, but it was hard to imagine we’d ever cruise the boulevards of Mountain View, California, as smoothly as we do today.  We’re taking this million mile milestone as further proof that fully self-driving vehicles will become a reality, and we’re looking forward to finding out where the next million miles will take us.