Google's Self-Driving Car: Sensors Tested Around Children; No Car Crashes For Halloween

Google has updated its self-driving car with sensors and a new software to drive a safe road around children.

"This gives our sensors and software extra practice at recognizing children in all their unique shapes and sizes, even when they're in odd costumes," according to Google's post on Google+ as reported in Tech Times.

Google tested their self-driving car functionalities, taking advantage of the Halloween season. They invited kids along with their families to hang out with their prototype on Oct. 31 at the Mountain View facility.

"This week, lots of little ghouls, superheroes and even robots were running around Google with their families, so we asked them to hang out around our parked cars," a statement from Google says, according to Tech Times.

Google wants to ensure every child's safety around the vicinity of the self-driving car, sources said. The car is tested to avoid any accidents to happen, whether it's a child running across the road or a sudden action from a kid along the sidewalk that might result to serious injuries.

The company is "proud" of how the self-driving car pays full attention in the surroundings and that allows it to drive carefully on public roads.

"When our sensors detect children - costumed or not - in the vicinity, our software understands that they may behave differently," according to Google's explanation reported in Tech Times.

The self-driving car program started in 2009 and the test initiated on Oct. 31, 2015 helped the company check the car's sensors, the programmed software and its function, according to Fortune.

There are 23 Lexus RX450h SUVs self-driving cars along the road; 19 are reported to be in Mountain View, California and four have been testedin Austin, Texas, according to Tech Crunch.

Google has announced in September that their purpose is not to manufacture any cars for self-driving. Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the Transportation Research Institute of the University of Michigan have recently revealed that there were 9.1 crashes have been recorded for the self-driving cars in comparison to the 1.9 crashes cause by a human. Although, they also explained that the crashes were not the self-driving car's fault but a human error, according to Tech Times.