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Tampa, Florida, USA High Fidelity Imagery See the things that matter to your business and the global economy - cars, trucks, ships, planes, factories, and cropland across the globe - with sub-meter resolution imagery when and where you need it. Courtesy of Skybox Imaging

Mountain View, CA, USA - June 10, 2014

We’re thrilled to announce that Skybox Imaging has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Google!

Five years ago, we began the Skybox journey to revolutionize access to information about the changes happening across the surface of the Earth.

Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE

High Fidelity Imagery
See the things that matter to your business and the global economy - cars, trucks, ships, planes, factories, and cropland across the globe - with sub-meter resolution imagery when and where you need it.
Courtesy of Skybox Imaging

We’ve made great strides in the pursuit of that vision.

We’ve built and launched the world’s smallest high-resolution imaging satellite, which collects beautiful and useful images and video every day.

We have built an incredible team and empowered them to push the state-of-the-art in imaging to new heights.

The time is right to join a company who can challenge us to think even bigger and bolder, and who can support us in accelerating our ambitious vision.

Courtesy of Skybox Imaging

Skybox and Google share more than just a zip code.

We both believe in making information (especially accurate geospatial information) accessible and useful.

And to do this, we’re both willing to tackle problems head on — whether it’s building cars that drive themselves or designing our own satellites from scratch.

A very early version of our prototype vehicle, and an artistic rendering of our vehicle.
Courtesy of Skybox Imaging

We are who we are because of the incredible customers, partners, & advisors who have given their time, wisdom, resources & encouragement over the years.

To the people who believed in us before anyone else, you know who you are.

Thank you.

In addition, we wouldn’t be here without the unwavering support of our friends and family.

This has been an incredible journey, and we look forward to working with our new Google family and the world at-large to write the next chapter.

A very early version of our prototype vehicle, and an artistic rendering of our vehicle.
Courtesy of Skybox Imaging

We should point out that our agreement with Google, which is subject to customary approvals and closing conditions, hasn’t closed yet.

So in the short term, it will continue to be business as usual at Skybox.

Onwards and Upwards!

The Skybox Team

Source: Skybox Imaging

http://www.skyboximaging.com/

Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle

May 27, 2014

Ever since we started the Google self-driving car project, we’ve been working toward the goal of vehicles that can shoulder the entire burden of driving.

Chris Urmson, Director, Google Self-Driving Cars.
Courtesy of Google

Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking.

Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can’t keep their car keys.
And drunk and distracted driving?
History.

Courtesy of Google

We’re now exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by building some prototypes; they’ll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention.

They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them.

Our software and sensors do all the work.

Courtesy of Google

The vehicles will be very basic - we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possibile - but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button.
And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.

It was inspiring to start with a blank sheet of paper and ask, “What should be different about this kind of vehicle?”

We started with the most important thing: safety.

Courtesy of Google

They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections.
And we’ve capped the speed of these first vehicles at 25 mph.

Courtesy of Google

On the inside, we’ve designed for learning, not luxury, so we’re light on creature comforts, but we’ll have two seats (with seatbelts), a space for passengers’ belongings, buttons to start and stop, and a screen that shows the route - and that’s about it.

Courtesy of Google

We’re planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and later this summer, our safety drivers will start testing early versions of these vehicles that have manual controls.

If all goes well, we’d like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years.

Courtesy of Google

We’re going to learn a lot from this experience, and if the technology develops as we hope, we’ll work with partners to bring this technology into the world safely.

If you’d like to follow updates about the project and share your thoughts, please join us on our new Google+ page.

Courtesy of Google

We’re looking forward to learning more about what passengers want in a vehicle where their number one job is to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Posted by
Chris Urmson, Director, Self-Driving Car Project

Video
A First Drive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqSDWoAhvLU

Video
Google Driverless Car Punks NYC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfICqoKrghw

Source: Official Google Blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/

ASTROMAN Magazine - 2010.11.06

Intelligent Electric Car without Driver. From Europe to Shanghai EXPO

http://www.astroman.com.pl/index.php?mod=magazine&a=read&id=838