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> And while carmakers, rideshare companies and Autonomous AI companies are all forming alliances in varying capacities, Alphabet's self driving car project danc

by beambot 10y ago

> And while carmakers, rideshare companies and Autonomous AI companies are all forming alliances in varying capacities, Alphabet's self driving car project dance card remains conspicuously empty. Except for the Ford partnership [1] and a strategic investment in Uber [2]. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/business/ford-and-google-team-up-tosupport-driverless-cars.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/business/ford-and-google-t... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-into-uber-its-largest-deal-ever/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-i...

Fricken 10y ago
Your first link refers to the Self-driving Coalition for Safer Streets which also includes Volvo, Uber and Lyft, and it's just a lobby group. The second link, about Google Ventures investment in Uber is unrelated to the self driving car program. Uber has, in the meantime, acquired a substantial portion of the Carnegie Mellon robotics department [1] and has siphoned off ~100 engineers from Bing Maps [2], which to me implies that for whatever reason Uber wants to be as independent from Google as possible. To graduate from a science project to a revenue generating business, Google needs a major manufacturing partnership, and while they've been seeking such a partnership for years now, no formal announcement has been made beyond a deal with FCA to outfit 100 Pacifica minivans with autonomous sensors. It was emphasized that Alphabet and FCA have no plans extending beyond those 100 vehicles [3]. [1]http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582 http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bings-mapping-assets-will-absorb-around-100-microsoft-employees/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bings... [3] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdriving-idUSKCN0YA2ZP http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdriving-idUSKCN...

by beambot 10y ago

Fricken 10y ago

Your first link refers to the Self-driving Coalition for Safer Streets which also includes Volvo, Uber and Lyft, and it's just a lobby group. The second link, about Google Ventures investment in Uber is unrelated to the self driving car program. Uber has, in the meantime, acquired a substantial portion of the Carnegie Mellon robotics department [1] and has siphoned off ~100 engineers from Bing Maps [2], which to me implies that for whatever reason Uber wants to be as independent from Google as possible. To graduate from a science project to a revenue generating business, Google needs a major manufacturing partnership, and while they've been seeking such a partnership for years now, no formal announcement has been made beyond a deal with FCA to outfit 100 Pacifica minivans with autonomous sensors. It was emphasized that Alphabet and FCA have no plans extending beyond those 100 vehicles [3]. [1]http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582 http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bings-mapping-assets-will-absorb-around-100-microsoft-employees/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bings... [3] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdriving-idUSKCN0YA2ZP http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdriving-idUSKCN...