I interviewed with the self driving car team while it was still part of google X. I was told that every single employee on the team started out as a contractor,

I interviewed with the self driving car team while it was still part of google X. I was told that every single employee on the team started out as a contractor, people would be converted to full time on a first come first serve basis, usually about a year and a half in. There was no path to jumping straight to FTE according to the hiring manager.