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Google has no intention to beat its competitors in the self-driving cars space, and I suspect it has never actually wanted to produce such cars for mass use. W
by jonnat 10y ago
Google has no intention to beat its competitors in the self-driving cars space, and I suspect it has never actually wanted to produce such cars for mass use.
What it does want is to make self-driving cars widely used, because that would mean that the time currently wasted in commuting by car could turn into increased internet usage, which drives Google's revenue. That's why Google was an early investor in Uber. Its efforts in building self-driving technology are intended as a catalyst for the industry, in which case it seem to have been a success.
- visarga 10y agoIf Google wanted to increase internet usage, instead of self driving cars it would invest more in decent remote working technology. Not needing to drive beats laptoping in your car. But I think Google imagines itself as an "AI company", and self driving cars are just one of the goalposts of AI. I have to admit, I am frustrated by the secrecy of their development process, years passed and nothing of essence was announced about their progress.
- fixermark 10y agoI think Google's got chips in both games. https://apps.google.com/products/hangouts/ https://apps.google.com/products/hangouts/
- aetherson 10y agoThis is an absurd claim. The idea that Google has poured billions into a decade-long project to solve an extremely hard technology problem in order to lure people into marginally more internet use that will help Facebook as much as Google? When, if that technology problem is solved by Google, there is genuinely a big business in it?