How Google's self-driving car is safer than most drivers

[MUSIC] It's an amazing demonstration of technology. White SUVs winding through the streets of Mountain View, California. Yielding to pedestrians and navigating inter. [INAUDIBLE] Sounds ordinary, but these are Google's self-driving cars, which a handful of journalists had the chance to test drive. See you around the block. Google's self-driving is a car that's been outfitted with the latest in Lydar and other sensing technologies. To drive your car without a human behind the wheel. Using that tech, the vehicle detects every car, person, and object in the immediate area. It's driving itself, but after about five minutes, everyone's, you know, well, is that all it does? It's. Just incredibly calming once you get used to it. Google has been developing these autonomous vehicles since 2009, and aims to make them available by 2017. Previously, they've been really restricted to freeway test conditions. And now, they are working in an actual city which is a much more complex driving situation. In many ways, the cars handle the streets better than humans by avoiding other cars blind spots and shifting slightly in the lane to make room for cyclists. But the software in these vehicles is far from being ready to ship. In a parking lot, there are no lane lines and many cars are reversing. It's a challenge that engineers at Google haven't solved just yet. Google is racing against other car makers, like Audi, GM, Ford, and Volvo to develop autonomous driving technology. In Mountain View, California, I'm Sumi Das, cnet.com for CBS News.