Google's Trillion-Dollar Driverless Car: How Google Wins
forbes.com
forbes.com
The advantages (in my opinion):
- Going driverless means a threat to existing, big car companies since there would likely be less cars needed on the road. Partnering with Tesla would sidestep that - it would allow Tesla to ramp up production of it's electric cars, and would fit nicely with Elon Musk's stated life goal of making energy consumption sustainable (along with sustainable energy generation - SolarCity, and making humanity a multi-planetary species - SpaceX).
- Google would get a partner that would be likely to enthusiastically embrace driverless.
- An investment in Tesla by Google would provide a huge cash boost to open new factories, expand it's existing factory, re-tool for new Tesla models. It would greatly aid Tesla's goal of mass producing the electric vehicle.
- Driverless technology gets around the initial range issues for EV batteries while the technology is new - a driverless, electric car would bring you to the office door, drop you off, and drive down to the basement to recharge itself until summoned via smartphone for the commute home.
- Simpler, cheaper servicing and running costs since EVs have less parts - no oil filters, radiators, gearboxes, drive trains, heavy engines (and potentially pedals, steering wheels etc if driverless). The twin technologies of electric and driverless means the cars are more reliable, as there's less parts to break, cheaper (once initial technology costs drop), lighter and greener (as the bill of materials for a driverless electric is a fraction of that of a regular 4 cylinder gasoline car). If every car on the road was electric and driverless, most/all vehicle safety equipment could be eliminated along with accidents - less weight, hence more range for lithium-ion batteries, and cheaper vehicles as less parts are needed to manufacture them.
- For re-fueling, EVs don't need to drive to a dedicated re-fueling spot, they can charge up in the same house/workplace/shopping center that a passenger is going to anyway.
Thoughts?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin have invested in Tesla since it's beginning. I think they both own a Tesla Roadster and probably both own a Model S (wouldn't you if you had $20 billion).
Tesla could either sell batteries and the electric powertrain to Google or Google will could just autonomous vehicle technology to Tesla and others. Musk likes to sell it's technologies and parts to other companies.
Imagine if the car drove off to charge itself. There wouldn't be any miscalculated trips (like the NY times article). The car could be programmed to not let you run out of energy.
It's coming, just hang tight. There are a lot of people fighting this kind of technology (not sure why, money) and that's unfortunate.
The best part of autonomous vehicles would be turning around the front seats to eat, sleep, play cards, anything. Autonomous vehicles will provide a whole new industry for America, new parts, news services, new shops. It's a good thing, I guess.
Apple needs to get in the "helping the world" business. They should invest some of their $100 billion in future technologies. The world made everyone at apple extremely rich, and Steve Jobs was never the charitable type, isn't it time Apple gave back to humanity? $5 billion from Apple would be nothing to them, but would be everything to a company like Tesla.
The military could even invest in Tesla. I'm sure they would have tons of uses for high-quality batteries and electric powertrains.
Tesla sure has a bright future ahead of them. As soon as a bad review comes out they respond publicly and are not afraid to call out bad journalists.