Meet the Blind Man Who Convinced Google Its Self-Driving Car Is Finally Ready

[Narrator] Google is finally getting serious about

self-driving cars. As in, it's getting serious about

making self-driving cars and putting them in consumer hands.

Now, the tech giant is finally making it's own

self-driving car company called 'Waymo'.

In the 7 years of the original experimental phase,

Google has put more than a few notches in its belt.

After more than 2 million miles of driving its cars

can dodge jaywalkers and interpret hand signals

from construction workers. They've mastered the dance

of the four way stop, they pull over for emergency

vehicles and they brake for squirrels.

To prove it's ready, Google's car carried a passenger

around public roads with nobody around to take control

in case something went wrong.

We drove all over the bay area, uh, and showed

that yes indeed we had the capability.

This trip was about showing that we can actually take

that capability, and turn it into something that's ready

to go out into the real world.

Oh, and that passenger? He's legally blind.

The drive was a quick 10 minute or so loop around

the Texas capital, which conveniently doesn't have

any laws saying you have to have a human backup

for a self-driving car. But for Steve Mahan, it was

a really big deal.

Going where I need to go in a vehicle without having

to make arrangements with other drivers or a family member

or some form of public transportation, uh, it just let

me be a whole person again.

Ever since deciding to make a fully driver-less car,

one without a steering wheel or pedals, Google

has harped on the potential to put anybody who can't drive

back in command of a vehicle. And now that Google's finally

talking about bringing that technology to market,

a fresh litany of challenges arises. To hit the ground

in cities around the world, Waymo must map every inch

of every street it's gonna travel. It has to drive down

hardware costs and prove its software to the public

and to public officials. It has to navigate a spaghetti bowl

of regulations that change from city to state to country,

a lot of which haven't even been written yet.

It has to figure out how to manufacture cars,

and then squeeze money out of a newborn industry

that's already crowded. But, if they can figure it out,

they'll have at least one customer ready to hop aboard.

I am piling up a list of all the places I need to go.