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It is billed as the future of transport, a vehicle that can transport without the need to drive.

Google today revealed the first fully working prototype of its driverless car.

The first version came under fire for looking like a toy car - and a new rooftop sensor means the second now looks like a toy police car.

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The first fully working version of Google's self-driving car has been revealed - and the firm promises it will be on California's road next year.

'Today we're unwrapping the best holiday gift we could've imagined: the first real build of our self-driving vehicle prototype,' the firm said.

'The vehicle we unveiled in May was an early mockup—it didn't even have real headlights!

'Since then, we've been working on different prototypes-of-prototypes, each designed to test different systems of a self-driving car—for example, the typical "car" parts like steering and braking, as well as the "self-driving" parts like the computer and sensors. 

'We've now put all those systems together in this fully functional vehicle—our first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving.

Google said it will be testing the car on its own tracks over Christmas, and hopes to use them on roads next year.

'We're going to be spending the holidays zipping around our test track, and we hope to see you on the streets of Northern California in the new year. 

'Our safety drivers will continue to oversee the vehicle for a while longer, using temporary manual controls as needed while we continue to test and learn.'

Earlier this month Google said it had made the cars more aggressive. 

After testing its autonomous vehicles over 700,000 miles of public road, Google's engineers have tweaked the software that controls the cars to give them a slightly more aggressive edge. 

The first version of Google's self driving car, which was revealed in March.

This means that Google's cars will inch forward at junctions, particularly those with four-way intersections, to get through ahead of other drivers.

The car will also drive closer to the vehicle in front than is recommended in the Highway Code, in an attempt to avoid other motorists from cutting dangerously in front of them.

While this distance is recommended to give humans time to react to hazards and time to stop, experts say autonomous vehicles can react immediately and so drive closer together. 

'We found that we actually need to be - not aggressive - but assertive,' Nathaniel Fairfield, technical leader of a team that writes software fixes for the vehicles, told the San Jose Mercury.

'If you're always yielding and conservative, basically everybody will just stomp on you all day.'

Google has been testing a fleet of retrofitted driverless vehicles on roads around the US with a team of safety drivers who sit behind the wheel ready to take over should anything go wrong.

Earlier this year the company also unveiled a new compact version of its car without a steering wheel.

Google's self-driving car hits the road!

Google tested converted hybrid cars (pictured) over 700,000 miles on public roads in California and has tweaked its software to reduce gaps between vehicles to avoid other drivers from cutting in front of the car

It is planning to build around 100 of these prototype vehicles, and will begin testing them on the roads in the US, but they are not expected to be commercially available until at least 2017.

The first driverless vehicles are due to begin appearing on British roads in January next year in three trials to be held in busy city centre environments.

However, some experts have raised concerns about the safety implications of putting autonomous vehicles on the road with human drivers.

A recent report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology highlighted research that showed human drivers change their behaviour when using the same roads as autonomous cars.

Motorists were found to copy the driving style of the computer controlled cars by leaving less space between them and the vehicle in front, but were less able to react quickly.

The driverless car. Google shows off self-driving vehicle

The findings will raise fears that drivers may adopt other aggressive driving styles if they see Google's driverless vehicles behaving more assertively.

However, Google has also been teaching its vehicles how to drive more safely by giving them instructions on 'defensive driving' styles.

Brian Torcellini, driving program manager who has been overseeing testing on the Google self-driving car project, said: 'When our car drives more naturally it makes people in the car and those driving around us feel more comfortable and safe.

'One of the things you will notice a good defensive driver does is avoid other people's blind spots, knowing that it is unsafe to be somewhere where another driver cannot see you. 

'Our car didn't always used to do this we thought that it would be a good feature to implement into the software to make our car a good defensive driver.'

He added that they have also been experimenting with teaching the vehicles 'body language' to communicate with other drivers what its intentions are. 

'We're now trying to teach the car different ways to sort of fit in with society and the way that other people drive,' he said. 

Most of the tests on Google's cars have been conducted around its headquarters in Mountain View in California in converted Lexus hybrid cars equipped with radar, video cameras and rooftop laser to sense the world around them.

Google claims that none of its vehicles have yet to get a traffic ticket or to be involved in an accident, although there was one accident when a human driver took over control.