> Google has a big automatic driving research operation, but to make money from it, they will have to get into the auto business in a big way. That's a huge, ri

> Google has a big automatic driving research operation, but to make money from it, they will have to get into the auto business in a big way. That's a huge, risky investment. Also, making cars has lower margins than search ads, which means Google's stock would go down if they did that. This argument assumes that Google would want to generate from the sale of the car itself. Such a scenario seems unlikely to me. The car is simply a new platform - like the web and mobile devices - for Google to deploy their service layer on top of and collect more user data and deliver more ads.