Google has announced that it will start testing its self-driving vehicles in the city of Kirkland, Washington.
This announcement was made in the official Google Self-Driving Car Project Google Plus page.
According to Google, Kirkland is an ideal place for testing its self-driving vehicles because of the temperate climate the city has along with the wet conditions and the hills with many uphill and downhill roads.
Google announced that Lexus RX450h SUVs will be driving in and around North Kirkland and has also asked its followers to comment about what they think about these tests and share their opinions.
Kirkland is the third city followed by Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas where Google has carried out tests on its self-driving vehicles.
Google Self-driving Car Project, head of business operations, Jennifer Haroon said: "We have strong roots in Kirkland having established an office here a decade ago."
"Kirkland has always been welcoming to Google and expanding our testing program here will give our self-driving cars some new learning experiences and let us hear from different communities as we develop this technology."
In its self-driving car project monthly report for January, the number of vehicles in use for the test are 22 Lexus RX450h SUVs currently self-driving in public roads, 15 in Mountain View, CA and 7 in Austin, TX and 33 prototypes presently self-driving in public roads, 26 in Mountain View, CA and 7 in Austin, TX.
According to this report, the total number of miles driven so far, since the project began in 2009, is 2408597, 1419672 miles in autonomous mode and 988925 miles in manual mode.
It also says that they are averaging between 10,000 to 15,000 autonomous miles per week in public streets.
Image: Google's Self-driving SUV in Kirkland. Photo: Courtesy of Google
