Google Automotive

This morning, the New York Times revealed the once top-secret Google X lab, rendering it not very top-secret anymore and spurring the imaginations of million around the world with these prophetic words: "Google may turn one of the ideas – the driverless cars that it unleashed on California's roads last year – into a new business." Could this mean that Google is about to venture further in to the realm of auto making (or auto modding?) And if so, what does this mean for the existing auto industry, which is one of the few areas of industry thus far not under Google’s control or influence?

 

Not long ago, Google began conducting experiments with vehicles, putting Toyota Prius hatchbacks on the road in California to score some test miles of its self-driving vehicle system. Although Google launched the program in secret, the company has since made public presentations on the technology and Google’s goals for its deployment. The goal for Google is to create a car that is completely unreliant on human drivers, although at this time, a human driver is required as a means to take over control of the systems if something goes wrong. Google has made it clear that their ultimate goal is to have a driverless system, and that human control would be eliminated completely by the time the project is ready for deployment.

 

Google is rumored to be considering building these autonomous cars in the U.S., and that would be good news for the auto industry. It would add much needed jobs to boost the American economy, and would set Google apart among its tech contemporaries as a company that actually manufactures something in-house, and domestically. Although Google is one of the largest and wealthiest companies in the U.S., deciding to make an entrance into the carmaking industry is not something any company can take very lightly. This is even worse when you consider that the company’s sales strategy involves a cutting edge technology, and that they haven’t exactly demonstrated a desire for designing and building any other part of an automobile beyond the part they have innovated. Driverless driving technology could be an historic and game changing feature, but it would seem to make more sense if Google simply continued to deal with the innovation, and maybe sell this new technology to existing car companies as partners, than to head off alone into automobile design and manufacturing.