I was already imagining Google would be much more interested in dominating the algorithmic and software aspect of it than competing with their own car, since se

I was already imagining Google would be much more interested in dominating the algorithmic and software aspect of it than competing with their own car, since self-driving software will probably be winner-take-all, it's of course much better to license the tech for every other carmaker... I'd guess the car was just a 'vehicle' for the R&D all along.