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Fasten Your Seatbelts: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions Amazing! He studied and compared all other driver-less cars to Google's and came to this conc

Fasten Your Seatbelts: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions Amazing! He studied and compared all other driver-less cars to Google's and came to this conclusion. I know a writer getting paid for clicks wouldn't forget that virtually every major car company is working on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_car#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_car#History

dmix 14y ago
Xerox's GUI was worth trillions.
- megablast 14y ago
  It is easy to throw out a statement like that, but hard to justify. How big would computers be today without the GUI, with a different system.
- kamaal 14y ago
  Just like how Xerox was unable to realize the value of what they had. Its very possible the car makers too, might think on the same line. Sometimes you need a outsider to show you how powerful your own work can be.
thesash 14y ago
Or that google isn't an auto manufacturer...
- shaurz 14y ago
  Not yet.
cremnob 14y ago
A lot of people here seem to have the blinders on about this. It's kind of funny. I've posted this before the last time this came up. Car companies have been working on this for a while, unless Google's offering is just light years ahead of the rest, no car company is going to pay a Google tax for this tech (and it's unlikely it will be any better than what they are already working on). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017784
- jsnell 14y ago
  Every manufacturer is not going to have their own solution. The top few, sure. But it's a different story for the long tail. It can't possibly make sense for all the companies with 1% market share and no notable software knowledge to write their own systems, especially with all the likely regulatory hurdles. It wouldn't be good, and it wouldn't be cheap. There's clearly going to be a huge market for commodity solutions, and the economies of scale and the network effects suggest that it should narrow down to a few main ones. Is Google's going to be one of those successful ones? Impossible to say for sure, but they do have a couple of huge advantages. They already have the geodata (all car manufacturers would still need to pay either Google or Nokia for that, even if they wrote their own software). And if I were a car manufacturer, I'd rather not license software from a direct competitor, but from an outsider. It certainly seems worth a bet.
  - taligent 14y ago
    > Every manufacturer is not going to have their own solution. The top few, sure. Wrong answer. The car companies that currently have their own projects: Audi / BMW / Ford / GM / Honda / Hyundai / Lexus / Mercedes-Benz / Nissan / Porsche / Tesla / Toyota / Volkswagen / Volvo And remind me again who would want to license technology from a company who has zero experience in delivering mission critical solutions.
    - OGinparadise 14y ago
      And remind me again who would want to license technology from a company who has zero experience in delivering mission critical solutions. Plus cars are 10-20 year commitments, is Google going to be there and still interested in this? I am not even mentioning the strings Google might attach, like using Google Tires to be "compliant and be able to use the {brand}" (see Android)
    - Someone 14y ago
      Also, there has been huge consolidation in the market. For example, BMW owns Rolls-Royce and Mini, the Volkswagen group includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, Skoda, and others, Volvo is, IIRC, chinese and Chevrolet Korean, and there are lots of reciprocal relationships such as that betweeen Renault and Nissan. There are almost more car brands than car designs.

dmix 14y ago

Xerox's GUI was worth trillions.

megablast 14y ago
It is easy to throw out a statement like that, but hard to justify. How big would computers be today without the GUI, with a different system.
kamaal 14y ago
Just like how Xerox was unable to realize the value of what they had. Its very possible the car makers too, might think on the same line. Sometimes you need a outsider to show you how powerful your own work can be.

thesash 14y ago

Or that google isn't an auto manufacturer...

shaurz 14y ago
Not yet.

cremnob 14y ago

A lot of people here seem to have the blinders on about this. It's kind of funny. I've posted this before the last time this came up. Car companies have been working on this for a while, unless Google's offering is just light years ahead of the rest, no car company is going to pay a Google tax for this tech (and it's unlikely it will be any better than what they are already working on). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017784

jsnell 14y ago
Every manufacturer is not going to have their own solution. The top few, sure. But it's a different story for the long tail. It can't possibly make sense for all the companies with 1% market share and no notable software knowledge to write their own systems, especially with all the likely regulatory hurdles. It wouldn't be good, and it wouldn't be cheap. There's clearly going to be a huge market for commodity solutions, and the economies of scale and the network effects suggest that it should narrow down to a few main ones. Is Google's going to be one of those successful ones? Impossible to say for sure, but they do have a couple of huge advantages. They already have the geodata (all car manufacturers would still need to pay either Google or Nokia for that, even if they wrote their own software). And if I were a car manufacturer, I'd rather not license software from a direct competitor, but from an outsider. It certainly seems worth a bet.
- taligent 14y ago
  > Every manufacturer is not going to have their own solution. The top few, sure. Wrong answer. The car companies that currently have their own projects: Audi / BMW / Ford / GM / Honda / Hyundai / Lexus / Mercedes-Benz / Nissan / Porsche / Tesla / Toyota / Volkswagen / Volvo And remind me again who would want to license technology from a company who has zero experience in delivering mission critical solutions.
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    And remind me again who would want to license technology from a company who has zero experience in delivering mission critical solutions. Plus cars are 10-20 year commitments, is Google going to be there and still interested in this? I am not even mentioning the strings Google might attach, like using Google Tires to be "compliant and be able to use the {brand}" (see Android)
  - Someone 14y ago
    Also, there has been huge consolidation in the market. For example, BMW owns Rolls-Royce and Mini, the Volkswagen group includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, Skoda, and others, Volvo is, IIRC, chinese and Chevrolet Korean, and there are lots of reciprocal relationships such as that betweeen Renault and Nissan. There are almost more car brands than car designs.