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It's been more than three years in the making, but Google has finally pulled back the curtain on a prototype of its first self-driving car. The prototype is tiny and appears to have a face on the front and camera attached to the top. The vehicles are not equipped with a steering wheel, accelerator pedal or brake pedal. The only controls a driver has is a start button and a red “e-stop” button for panic stops.

Google says the program is currently in a prototype phase, but that it plans to build around 100 early versions of the vehicles for testing this summer. Those cars, which are reminiscent of a Fiat 500 mixed with Playmobil toys, will initially include manual controls in case something goes wrong, just like the company's current self-driving car program. After a pilot program in California, Google says it will develop a broader program with the help of partners, presumably for commercial use.

Right now, the vehicle maxes out at 25 mph.

"They have sensors that remove blind spots, and they can detect objects out to a distance of more than two football fields in all directions, which is especially helpful on busy streets with lots of intersections," Google said in a blog post announcing the prototypes.Here's a short promo video of the self-driving car:

 This latest prototype was made using off-the-shelf car parts, Brin says. That includes heavy use of foam as well as an electric motor. The company would not divulge specific partners on the project, short of saying that it's been building prototypes for some time, and still has work to do before you see these hauling people around.