4 ms·

Google's software / systems would work just as well with gasoline cars as electric. Strategically they want the complements to the stuff they sell to be as che

Google's software / systems would work just as well with gasoline cars as electric. Strategically they want the complements to the stuff they sell to be as cheap as possible, which means having a somewhat generic / commoditized ecosystem around them (cf Android). Running their own car company is antithetical to that.

toomuchtodo 13y ago
If they own the car company, integration will be easier and they can prevent from being locked out by other auto manufacturers. Electric vehicles will continue to drop in price, and they have a much lower total cost of ownership. The price of oil will be continue to increase, while the cost of electricity will continue to plummet. Lets not even talk about how electric cars only require tire rotations every 5K miles and battery replacements every ~100-150K/miles (which, by the way, can be handled by automated systems like Tesla's pack swap station). Tesla provides turnkey low cost mobility. Google just needs to integrate the intelligence.
malandrew 13y ago
It's not necessarily antithetical. They already operate a small fleet for the purpose of StreetView mapping. Imagine having an entire fleet of sensors all over the world gathering data all the time. Traffic data, weather data, etc. The cars could also serve as a way to show people local advertisements. If I pay for a trip from A to B, Google can advertise for all the small businesses along the route from A to B. It would be like having billboards in the car tailored to each user. Furthermore, it would be super interesting if Google also took interest in Liquid Robotics as well if they see value in a global sensor network play. Also, what if cars could be used as a last mile wireless play? None of this would be trivial, but they wouldn't have the cost of acquiring plots of land for antennas like telcos do. Pairing of a cellphone with a mobile car antenna could be done by comparing the directional vector of the vehicle with the the directional vector of people needing to connect to an antenna. i.e. if I'm driving along side a Google car, that's the natural choice of antenna to connect to. You need to look at each car in the fleet as an asset with potential instead of purely as a capital expenditure limited to known revenue streams.
- declan 13y ago
  >"Imagine having an entire fleet of sensors all over the world gathering data all the time. Traffic data, weather data, etc." What you've described is already, in part, reality. Android phones already gather traffic data for Google Maps. http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/07/how-google-tracks-traffic/ http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/07/how-google-tracks-tra...

toomuchtodo 13y ago

If they own the car company, integration will be easier and they can prevent from being locked out by other auto manufacturers. Electric vehicles will continue to drop in price, and they have a much lower total cost of ownership. The price of oil will be continue to increase, while the cost of electricity will continue to plummet. Lets not even talk about how electric cars only require tire rotations every 5K miles and battery replacements every ~100-150K/miles (which, by the way, can be handled by automated systems like Tesla's pack swap station). Tesla provides turnkey low cost mobility. Google just needs to integrate the intelligence.

malandrew 13y ago

It's not necessarily antithetical. They already operate a small fleet for the purpose of StreetView mapping. Imagine having an entire fleet of sensors all over the world gathering data all the time. Traffic data, weather data, etc. The cars could also serve as a way to show people local advertisements. If I pay for a trip from A to B, Google can advertise for all the small businesses along the route from A to B. It would be like having billboards in the car tailored to each user. Furthermore, it would be super interesting if Google also took interest in Liquid Robotics as well if they see value in a global sensor network play. Also, what if cars could be used as a last mile wireless play? None of this would be trivial, but they wouldn't have the cost of acquiring plots of land for antennas like telcos do. Pairing of a cellphone with a mobile car antenna could be done by comparing the directional vector of the vehicle with the the directional vector of people needing to connect to an antenna. i.e. if I'm driving along side a Google car, that's the natural choice of antenna to connect to. You need to look at each car in the fleet as an asset with potential instead of purely as a capital expenditure limited to known revenue streams.

declan 13y ago
>"Imagine having an entire fleet of sensors all over the world gathering data all the time. Traffic data, weather data, etc." What you've described is already, in part, reality. Android phones already gather traffic data for Google Maps. http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/07/how-google-tracks-traffic/ http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/07/how-google-tracks-tra...