{"id":682,"date":"2014-06-17T09:21:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T15:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulprospector.com\/knowledge\/?p=682"},"modified":"2022-04-18T08:36:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T14:36:24","slug":"google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/","title":{"rendered":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_688\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 300px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-688 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"google-car\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/google-car-1024x682.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Image courtesy of Google.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Google&#8217;s latest project brings plastics to the forefront, literally. According to a recent article on Plastics News, the Google<a href=\"http:\/\/www.plasticsnews.com\/article\/20140528\/NEWS\/140529926\/googles-autonomous-cars-will-present-a-plastic-face-to-the-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> self driving car<\/a> project is designing small, two-person vehicles that are &#8220;fully\u00a0autonomous.&#8221;\u00a0The cars come sans steering wheels, gas and brake pedals,\u00a0and they\u00a0produce\u00a0no gas fumes.<\/p>\n<p>The car is built on a foam base and has a plastic windshield that provides impact resistance and safety features for low-speed collisions. Its\u00a0top speed is currently limited to 25 miles per hour, which provides an added level of safety.<\/p>\n<p>Google&#8217;s\u00a0material selection\u00a0follows a growing trend of using light-weight, high performance materials such as aluminum and\u00a0composites, as noted in the article, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plasticsnews.com\/article\/20140611\/NEWS\/140619981\/ford-using-plastics-composites-and-aluminum-to-lighten-up-the-fusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Ford using plastics, composites and aluminum to lighten up the Fusion,&#8221;<\/a> also from Plastics News. Some of the changes and &#8220;lightweighting&#8221; methods noted here\u00a0are: &#8220;carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for seats, instrument panel, wheels and oil pan, and aluminum for sheet metal, brake rotors and front subframe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If the idea of self-driving, plastic cars doesn&#8217;t seem too far-fetched, what if your next car had it&#8217;s roots in the garden?\u00a0Researchers from H.J. Heinz Co. and Ford Motor Co. are studying the possibility of using tomatoes to make plastic parts\u00a0for cars, as described <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnet.com\/news\/ford-and-heinz-want-to-cook-up-car-parts-from-tomatoes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in this article<\/a> from cnet.com.\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">In 2011, Heinz started packaging ketchup in the PlantBottle, a plastic container made with 30 percent plant material that was developed by Coca-Cola Co. Plant fibers have been used as a reinforcing agent in composite plastics for a few years now in an effort to become less reliant on\u00a0petroleum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What other applications are you looking to &#8220;lightweight&#8221;?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google&#8217;s latest project brings plastics to the forefront, literally. According to a recent article on Plastics News, the Google self driving car project is designing small, two-person vehicles that are &#8220;fully\u00a0autonomous.&#8221;\u00a0The cars come sans steering wheels, gas and brake pedals,\u00a0and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1237],"class_list":{"0":"post-682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-plastics","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prospector Knowledge Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10\"},\"headline\":\"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/media\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/google-car-300x199.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Plastics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/media\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/google-car-300x199.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10\"},\"description\":\"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/media\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/google-car-300x199.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/media\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/google-car-300x199.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/682\\\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Prospector Knowledge Center\",\"description\":\"Welcome to the blog for UL Prospector, the most comprehensive raw material search engine for product developers.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=9615105800a0270a384212262298083881\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"caption\":\"Guest Author\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ulprospector.ul.com\\\/author\\\/guest-author\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face","description":"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face","og_description":"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.","og_url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/","og_site_name":"Prospector Knowledge Center","article_published_time":"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10"},"headline":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face","datePublished":"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/"},"wordCount":291,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg","articleSection":["Plastics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/","url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/","name":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-17T15:21:20+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T14:36:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10"},"description":"The Google self driving car uses a plastic front end and windshield. Other trends in lightweighting include using, aluminum, composites and plant fibers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2014\/06\/google-car-300x199.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/682\/google-self-driving-car-smiles-plastic-face\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Google Self Driving Car Smiles with a Plastic Face"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/","name":"Prospector Knowledge Center","description":"Welcome to the blog for UL Prospector, the most comprehensive raw material search engine for product developers.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9085be4b12b9b306a72726c67d147c10","name":"Guest Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=9615105800a0270a384212262298083881","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","caption":"Guest Author"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/author\/guest-author\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":1237,"user_id":20,"is_guest":0,"slug":"guest-author","display_name":"Guest Author","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}