Google’s self-driving car is to experience a less enjoyable climate than it has been experiencing so far in Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas. It will now take to the often rainy streets of Kirkland, Washington, where, according to Google, the car will also have to face a more hilly terrain and traffic patterns to which it’s not yet accustomed.

“After self-driving 1.4 million miles, we’re ready to give our cars more experience driving new environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions,” Google said in a statement, adding that the car that will be tested will be the Lexus RX450h SUV. Other cars may follow in the future.

Google already has a campus in Kirkland, but the main reason the location has been chosen is to give Google’s engineers a chance to see how the car’s sensors and on-board cameras deal with rain – something that can affect accuracy and confuse the car. At the same time, when the car has to negotiate a steep hill fixed sensors might see either the ground or the sky according to one report at least, and this is a predicament Google wants to put its car through.

If you haven’t heard of this coastal town, then cast your eyes back to 1982 when the Kirkland National Little League team won the Little League World Series. Washington Governor Jay Inslee was predictably thrilled by the move, saying in a Google statement, “We’re looking forward to seeing the cars on the road and understanding more about how self-driving cars might someday improve safety and provide traffic relief.”

According to Google’s Self-Driving Car Project Monthly Report since 2009 the cars have racked-up 1,419,672 miles in autonomous mode (software in full control) and 988,925 miles with humans at the controls. At the moment Google said that each week the cars average about 10,000-15,000 on public streets.

It’s likely the self-driving cars will be seen at other locations soon, with Ann Arbor in Michigan probably being the next according to a report in The Guardian. Due to safety regulations testing cars has been hampered, although the U.S. Transportation Department is currently working on amending regulations so that more driverless cars can take to the roads.

Photo credit: Google