San Francisco, CA, United States (AHN) – Google Inc. announced Saturday that its experimental self-driving car has traveled 140,000 miles around the San Francisco Bay Area without causing any accident.

The experimental car had a safety driver behind the wheel and a software engineer in the passenger seat to monitor the program that allows the car to self-navigate busy streets and roads, according to a Google blogpost by Sebastian Thrun, the company’s software engineer.

Local police were informed about the experiment.

The car can self-navigate using video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps. Google’s street view data allows the car to plan its routes by seeing junctions and roads in advance.

The team developing the autonomous car is composed of participants to the competitions to develop such car sponsored by the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which develops technology for use by the U.S. military.

Google hopes to perfect the car and make it drive people around safely. Mass production is expected eight years from now.

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