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It is hard to believe that it took until the year 2020 for the Android Auto media software to come to the motorcycle industry, but yet here we are – five years after the software’s initial release.

Available on Harley-Davidson motorcycles starting in March of this year, now we see that the Honda Gold Wing will also include Android Auto (the Gold Wing was the first motorcycle to have Apple CarPlay too, by the way).

No sooner has Google built its first autonomous car, and been granted its autonomous vehicle driving license in the State of California, than the Silicon Valley company has begun paving the way for autonomous two-wheeled transportation.

Writing an email to the State of California to do away with legal wording that restricts autonomous vehicle licenses just to cars, Google’s Ron Medford hopes to allow driverless/riderless trucks and motorcycles on city streets, provided they prove the same safety standards as with Google’s autonomous car program.

“It is certainly possible that future testing could include motorcycles or larger commercial vehicles,” said Medford in his email. “If some innovator can demonstrate that testing autonomous technology on such vehicles is safe, then they should be allowed to test.”

Californian motorists should brace themselves, as the Golden State is poised to let autonomous vehicles onto its roadways, en masse. Announcing that it will begin taking applications for driverless vehicle licenses starting in July, California will begin granting autonomous vehicles access to its roads in September of this year.

The decision is part of a larger nationwide push for autonomous vehicles, a topic we have covered at length here on Asphalt & Rubber, and accordingly something that the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) and American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) have finally taken an interest in participating on an advisory level.

The movement of transportation as a commodity continues, as California has become the second state to legalize the use of automated cars on its roadways (Nevada was first).

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law today SB 1298, which specifically legalizes the use of autonomous vehicles, as long as a licensed and bonded operator is in the vehicle’s driver seat.

Essentially legitimizing what was a legal grey-area, what the bill does does explicitly is green-light more autonomous vehicle projects in the Golden State.

With applications from the trucking industry to the car-sharing, and everything in-between, the advent of autonomous four-wheelers signals an interesting, yet scary, future for motorcyclists.

According to former Ford/Chrysler/GM-man Bob Lutz, self-driving cars could be the norm in as few as 20 years — an idea the could materially change the driving landscape as we know it.

As autonomous vehicles become increasing the status quo on the road, user-guided vehicles like motorcycles will become greater outliers, and could face a tyranny of the majority.

The day may have come sooner than we expected, but the day of commuters being scooted around by self-driving cars is rapidly approaching us. Clocking 300,000 self-driven accident-free miles, Google’s fleet of autonomous vehicles are set to reach another milestone, as the technology company is about to give the go-ahead for employees to use the cars for commuting.

Traditionally driven with one person behind the wheel, and another in the passenger seat (presumably watching a screen of diagnostics), Google says that the results from its tests and track record have shown the two-rider system to be unnecessary, and will thus allow solitary trips in the self-driving vehicles. The idea of course behind the system is that a person becomes a passive driver, able to “be more productive” while in the vehicle, i.e. watching YouTube kitten videos.

While the dozen or so self-driving Google cars are unlikely to make a huge impact (no pun intended) on our local commutes here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is a signaling of the changing times in our transportation system. For motorcyclists, this news should come as a mixed bag.

Google Street View is one of those internet services that you don’t think much about, that is of course until you use it a few times, and wonder how you ever got along without it. Giving you an eye-level view of your destination, it has proved to be indispensable here at A&R, as we search for a new workspace.

Tangents aside, the folks at Silverstone have been keen to get the British track a bit more publicity (ladies, did you see Leon Haslam getting his leathers painted on?), and accordingly invited the folks from Google to come out with its Street View camera setup.

Now, here is the fundamental difference between us Yanks and you Brits. Over here in America, land of freedom, democracy, and well armed bears, when we take a bunch of pictures of a road to put on the internet, we use this thing called an automobile. Crazy? Yes, we know.

We feel sorry for the poor Google bastard who had to ride the 3.666 mile track on a three-wheeled bicycle, that just doesn’t seem right (we hear it took him 45 minutes to get around the course). Watch the video of his labors after the jump. As for the fruits of his labor, check it out here.

You may have already noticed the Google+ “+1” buttons on the site, as lately we’ve been playing around with the social networking service here at Asphalt & Rubber. It took the internet search behemoth a while to roll out pages for sites like A&R, but we’ve finally gotten our Google+ page up, and had some time to populate it with articles and such.

An alternative to website’s like Facebook, Google+ most notably lets you share and connect with other users based on your social circles, e.g. you can select to share articles from A&R only with your motorcycling friends (sparring your non-motorcycle friends from your two-wheeled addiction). So, if Google+ is your social network of choice, be sure to follow us on there to get your daily motorcycle fix, and “+1” any articles you wish to share.

You may have notice the quad-colored speech balloon button that’s showing up at the top of posts now. A couple of weeks ago Google launched its appropriately named Google Buzz service, which allows users to share links, photos, etc via gmail.

Clicking on the button will bring up a pop-up window that will automatically load with the link of an article, and allow you to type a brief message that you’re about to share with your friends on gmail.

So if you’re a gmail user, now you can spread the A&R love via Google Buzz, just like you’ve been doing with our Twitter and Facebook buttons. Enjoy!