In an effort to expand its areas for testing of self driven cars, Alphabet Inc is will start test of such cars in Phoenix, Arizona metro area, the company said on Thursday.

This move would make Phoenix the fourth U.S. city to serve as a proving ground for the autonomous vehicles.

Last summer, the company’s Google unit expanded testing to Austin, Texas for the testing of driverless vehicle after having conducted the same for six years in Mountain View, California, where the company is based.

Kirkland, Washington, which is home to significant wet weather, was added as a testing site in February.

While complaining that safety rules are impeding testing and ultimate deployment of self driven driverless vehicles, major automakers and technology companies led by Google have been racing to develop and sell vehicles that can drive themselves.

California has been the place where Google has conducted most of its 1.5 million miles of autonomous vehicle testing. However in December California proposed rules requiring a steering wheel, brake pedals and a licensed driver in all robot test vehicles on the road which started a public argument with the state with Google.

“Arizona is known as a place where research and development is welcome, innovation can thrive, and companies can set up roots. The Phoenix area has distinct desert conditions, which will help us better understand how our sensors and cars handle extreme temperatures and dust in the air,” said Jennifer Haroon, head of business operations for the Google Self-Driving Car project.

With the intention of creating a detailed map of streets, lane markers, traffic signals and curb heights, its test drivers recently began driving four Lexus RX450h SUVs around the Phoenix area, Google said.

A municipal bus in Mountain View was struck by a Google self-driving car in a minor crash on Feb. 14. In what is being seen as the first crash that appears to be fault of the self-driving vehicle, Google has said it bears “some responsibility” for the incident. The company said that to avoid future incidents, it has made changes to its software after the crash.

A new set of guidance on self-driving vehicles for the various states and the automakers of self driving vehicles are being prepared by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency made the announcement in January and hopes are that the guidelines would be released by July this year. The first of two public hearings on the planned self-driving guidance would be held on Friday in Washington by the NHTSA.

In what brought some form of clarity regarding the identification of a ‘driver’ in a self driven car, in February, the NHTSA said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law. This is being tipped to be a major step toward winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads.

(Source:www.reuters.com)