Tests were recently conducted in its hometown of Mountain View, California.
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At least one of the car-makers was sufficiently impressed to express interest in collaborating, but was astounded to find that Google had no commercialisation plans of any kind for its potentially game-changing technology. Justus said “That is not something we could do alone.”
In a world of the automated and the convenient, it was just a matter of time until self-driving cars start to become a more expansive technology. We all know that Apple and Google are not even close to mass-producing a vehicle. Are we ready to have all of our cars drive themselves?
Google is not the only business that is looking towards the bright future of self-driving cars.
However, as the Google auto has already shown it can perform perfectly the way it is supposed to, meaning if every vehicle were like that, there would be no need for human appraisal. But if Apple and Google are interested in the vehicle industry, auto executives reason, cars and driving must be cool again.
The Frankfurt Motor Show saw lots of gorgeous new models (check out the Audi e-tron quattro and Porsche Mission E, for example), but the buzz all week was not about new cars and new trends – it was about what Apple and Google are planning in the next few years. According to Sarah Hunter, head of policy at the GoogleX innovation lab, “the intention is that the passenger gets in the vehicle, says into microphone, take me to Safeway, and the auto does the entire journey”. Until then, however, Google wants to have complete control so that it can properly test, tweak, and improve the hardware and software.
Justus said Google was working in partnership with the automobile industry, not in competition. Is the company developing systems to sell to other carmakers, or is Google taking steps towards building vehicles itself?
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Google self-driving prototype in Austin, courtesy photo. This may help to bring the enthusiast- dominated auto media around on a project that seeks to create a permanent alternative to driving. The company previously claimed that it would finish a high-detail map database for highways in the US and Europe by 2018. “He will supplement the current leadership team, which includes Chris Urmson, who has led the project since 2009”, wrote Cowen & Co. analyst John Blackledge in an industry note Monday.
