Google's New Self-Driving Car Is About to Hit the Streets

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—The rooftop of the new Google X building is a parking lot, but today it's also kind of a circus. There's even a tent. Chris Urmson, head of the self-driving car program, is discussing the autonomous prototype that Google built from scratch. Sergey Brin is giving interviews in French. Members of the local community of all ages and races and backgrounds have assembled. A blind woman who says she's never been in the driver's seat of a car is positively gleeful. A handful of press are here, as is ubiquitous transportation guru Gabe Klein, the former D.C. and Chicago DOT chief, chatting with some of them on behalf of NACTO about what it all means for cities, while wearing sunglasses.

And then there's the tiny electric prototype itself. It's running a preset loop with preset obstacles: pausing for a temporary construction sign, slowing for an oblivious pedestrian on his cell phone, trailing a cyclist a safe distance, stopping for a car that cuts it off, parking itself for another go. It would be a mundane route if not for the car's lack of a steering wheel, or gas pedal, or brake. Rides are taken two-at-a-time—vis-a-vis the Ark or the seating capacity, depending on your perspective.