Google's First Self-Driving Car Prototype Is Here

Google has unveiled its first self-driving vehicle prototype, with striking similarity to VW Beetle. The company called it "first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving."

The car will be seen on the West Coast's roads next year onwards.

"Today we're unwrapping the best holiday gift we could've imagined: the first real build of our self-driving vehicle prototype," the Internet giant said on its website on Monday.

Seven months ago Google had shown off the car's first design, and then the self-driving car design did not sport headlights, a steering wheel, brakes or accelerator pedals.

However in the newest release the prototype appears to have improved. "The vehicle we unveiled in May was an early mockup - it didn't even have real headlights Since then, we've been working on different prototypes-of-prototypes, each designed to test different systems of a self-driving car - for example, the typical 'car' parts like steering and braking, as well as the 'self-driving' parts like the computer and sensors," the Internet giant said.

"We've now put all those systems together in this fully functional vehicle - our first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving."

The company has also done some cosmetic changes and has included a more polished casing for the equipment that goes on the car's roof.

Google had initially announced the self-driving car project four years ago, in 2010. The project was the first creation from what later became Google X research and development lab. The lab is also working on number of other projects like intelligent eyewear Google Glass and nanoparticles for cancer detection.

State of California has already granted permit for Google for starting the test of self-driving cars on public roads.