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Comment by pakl | Hacker News Reader

Working on self-driving cars, much like working on advanced robots, requires tight integration between the software, sensors, and motors. These aspects cannot really be developed independently, especially if you want to end up with an optimized system that could be a product.

Safety is a part of this, too.

Google has ~10 years of experience in self-driving cars. They also have acquired many robotics companies. Surely, they know this.

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> Google has ~10 years of experience in self-driving cars. They also have acquired many robotics companies. Surely, they know this.

Really I think Google loses steam very easily when key people leave the team. I don't believe they have the mgmt infrastructure to keep the ball rolling when people get bored, run into hurdles, etc....

20% time and individual project ownership at Google X have helped to make Google a famous employer, but I do get the sense that the drawbacks are becoming more visible as the company grows and people move on.

Some of this is undoubtedly belt-tightening, but it's a lot easier to ax a specific project when it had a few fervent advocates who are no longer around. I'd be surprised if this wasn't a factor in the high project churn Google is known for.

But the reality of the product/market is that it will be a transitionary stage between assisted self-driving cars -> full robotic cars. There have been a number of complex highly technical products that have components developed independently and integrated at the end (fighter jets, space shuttles, etc).

It's possible Google will want to acquire one of the car companies to full do vertical integration. But that is not entirely necessary right now.

And given the whole complex regulatory and distribution constraints in the marketplace for automobiles it's good to have a partnership with a car company who has years of experience dealing with those issues.

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