• Chris Urmson, director of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, stands in front of a self-driving car

Chris Urmson, director of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, stands in front of a self-driving car (Photo : REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

Chris Urmson told delegates at the, Technology Entertainment and Design conference that, his eldest son was 11-years-old and is due to take his driving test in "four and a half years". "My team are committed to making sure that doesn't happen" he told BBC News.

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Urmson has headed Google's self-driving car program since 2009. He has laid out Google's commitment towards fully automated cars. So far, his team's vehicles have undergone driving tests for a distance of, 700,000 miles. While early models included a driver-less Prius. In 2013, the cars were given to 100 employees to test.

Some automotive firms have come up with the idea to introduce driver-assist features in the cars, in the hope that the technology can slowly win over sceptics who are uncomfortable in a fully automated car.

Google's own car, a prototype electric pod which was revealed in December 2014, has no steering wheel or conventional controls, but for early testing extra controls were fitted in so that Google's test drivers can take over in cases of malfunction.

The car has features which allows it to slow down and speed up according to traffic situations and is able to react appropriately towards different situations faced on road by drivers, which includes pedestrians, traffic jams, elderly citizens crossing roads, etc.

With the introduction of self-driven car traffic accidents and road fatalities would be drastically reduced and would cut down the human errors which can happen during driving.