What Google have done by driving everywhere is to create their own maps. They don't need to license data from anyone, they own their own maps and the underlying data is in a format they can make sense of unlike the many other formats that went with old-style GIS.
They have also been running that CAPTCHA to get people to decipher street and other signs for their maps.
In previous times maps were closely guarded secrets - because knowledge is power. Although Google have made quality (well, amazing) maps available to anyone with a computer, they have also taken ownership of maps and mapping. There have been no complaints of unfair practices from rival mapping concerns, they have not 'done a Microsoft' on their rivals. They simply offer a better product.
Whomever it was at Google that had the vision to do maps - and create their own map data - was very clever. Mapping the whole world their way - with Street View - may seem insane, but, there is a lot of power in owning the copyright to the world's maps. By analogy, with music the money is in song writing rather than performing.