The company has now announced a fully functioning prototype of their self-driving car which it plans to test on the San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning with next year. The company said to following: Google’s current prototype of the car seems to have everything it needs to be on the road – the autonomous driving system and traditional vehicle parts like braking, lighting and steering. At the moment, it looks exactly like a prototype, but the company is already looking for auto industry partners that will help produce a more mature model and release it to consumers. Back in 2012, Sergey Brin stated that Google Self-Driving car will be available for the general public in 2017, a date which was further confirme dby project director Chris Urmson, who has indicated a possible release from 2017 to 2020. Google doesn’t have plans to become a car manufacturer, but it is rather interested in marketing the system and the data behind it to automobile manufacturers. And now that the first real build is ready, it seems that we’re not that far from this moment, after all.