Google's self-driving cars are making progress, but there are still a few areas in which they need to improve, according to reports.
While the self-driving cars seem to be safer than human drivers, they appear to have a tough time driving in snow, dealing with additions to maps and driving in construction areas, according to Business Insider.
The driving in snow problem, one also found in human drivers, is because the robot cars have a hard time seeing objects when snow is on the road. For those in balmy climes this may not be a problem, but could case a kerfuffle on a ski vacation or driving over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house.
The cars rely on computer maps and if it doesn't appear on the map, it doesn't exist for the car. This means the car can get lost, travel down a closed or seasonal road or ignore a shortcut. Unfortunately, the Google car will lack the ability to ask for directions.
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As for construction zones or accidents, the robot cars will similarly be lost. All that hand and sign waving doesn't make sense to the cars yet, although the Google engineers seem to be working on this. However, if you think about the last accident you have seen, you may understand the difficulty a computer would have figuring out when to go and when to stop, especially with ambulances, sirens and movement.
These three instances don't mean that the self-driving cars should be scrapped, rather than Google still has several hoops to jump through before they will be commercially viable.
