But the Firefly had some drawbacks, like a top speed of 25 mph. That’s great when you’re working out the very basics of autonomous driving, but it’s not enough for most real-world streets.

Waymo Firefly and Chrysler Pacifica autonomous vehicles. Image Credits: Waymo The lowly minivan seemed to represent a more grounded realistic vision toward the goal.

The Firefly also gained a measure of fame in late 2015, when Google conducted the world's "first fully driverless ride on public roads" in Austin, Texas, with a blind passenger aboard—and no ...

The Firefly fleet has since been retired, but as Grunnan pointed out, the team has kept Firefly 1 around. Enshrined at Mountain View, it's Waymo Model T.

Waymo is trying to reinvent the act of driving. Behind miles of black-clad chain-linked fencing in a remote area of central California, the self-driving car company, started as part of Google, has ...

But Mr. Krafcik points out that Waymo had already tried to build a customized vehicle with the Firefly, a fully automated two-seater designed in 2013 and abandoned four years later.

Waymo is the clear market leader and is positioned to begin contributing to Google's bottom line over the next few years. Learn more on GOOG stock here.

Waymo, the former self-driving unit under Google, charmed the world a couple years ago when it deployed a bubble-shaped driverless car called “Firefly” on the public roads of San Francisco.

Guiding Light: Why Google’s Hand-Built, Fully Autonomous "Firefly" Mattered The Google Car is destined to be remembered as one of the most future-forward prototypes ever .