Google Reportedly Expanding Self-Driving Car Testing to 4 More Cities

Jennifer van der Kleut

News outlets like Fortune and IEEE Spectrum are reporting this week that a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) document suggests Google is planning to expand its famous self-driving car testing program to four more U.S. cities.

Fortune said the document was a renewal request from Google to the FCC for testing of radio transmitters in the 76GHz range, which is most likely for the radar systems on its driverless test cars.

The request reportedly asks to renew the current licenses for testing in Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas-the two cities in which Google currently tests its cars-as well as four additional cities. Unfortunately, the locations of the cities were redacted from the request, so there’s no way to know at this time where it plans to expand to.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles recently drafted a law that requires driverless test cars to feature both pedals and a steering wheel, and have a “driver” in the car that is capable of taking control of the car back in a dangerous situation. Google and others publicly lamented the law as hindering progress, particularly since Google’s test cars have no pedals or steering wheels.

Fortune speculates that the expansion to four more cities reflects the fact that Google needs to test its cars in varying environments and weather conditions, especially if its still plans to introduce a mass-market driverless car to consumers by 2020 as it initially declared.