Look out, folks, the future has arrived, and it's traveling at a very slow pace. Google's much-anticipated self-driving cars will begin cruising on Northern California roads this summer. Traveling at a break-neck maximum of 25-miles-per-hour and lacking in the brakes, accelerator, and steering wheel departments, the new generation of smart cars are ushering in a slightly terrifying future. 

Leader of the program Chris Urmson and his team have assembled 25 of the "cars," which, for now, are just called “prototypes” and are designed to curtail the time wasted in traffic and aide those unable to drive. Due to current state regulations, this fleet must be equipped with brakes, an accelerator pedal, and a steering wheel (thank the lord), but ultimately, Google wants to strip those out. 

“At that point, the steering wheel and brake pedal just don’t add value,” Urmson said during the demonstration at the new Google X headquarters in Mountain View. After all, (supposedly) the prototypes can decipher a trash can from a pedestrian, and even pick up what a pedestrian’s hand motions mean.

Google’s announcement, however, comes on the tail of sharp criticism. The first glimpse at numbers on the experiment: 11 accidents during the 1.7 million miles on the road since 2009. Although these accidents did not occur while in self-driving mode, the incident rate is still at more than twice the national average. Yikes.