Okay the car is ugly, but it may start a new trend in the automotive industry! I absolutely love the progress! Kudos Google for the new innovation, apple will use your technology and make it more sexy! http://www.bloombergview.com/articl...-driving-toaster-is-detroit-s-worst-nightmare Google's surprise reveal of its first in-house self-driving car prototype shook the the auto industry like a California earthquake this week, and quickly became the biggest car news of the year. To an industry that still expects journalists to come to its car shows, Google's announcing its "first car" at the a conference put on by Silicon Valley journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg was almost as shocking the fact that the vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals. Though the Silicon Valley-facing launch was a blow to the industry's pride, Google's decision to abandon traditional vehicle controls is what will keep auto executives up at night. Whether Detroit wants to accept it or not, driverless cars will be the key step forward in the trend away from ownership of cars and toward access to mobility. They herald the end of an industry model built on scale. Like Amazon's Kindle before it, Google's automobile trades away the upfront sale profit of a traditional car (or book) for a stream of revenue: content, advertisements and car-as-service fees.
Style will come, but I love the basic concept. But I suspect the switchover will be slow, people don't usually like giving up their control.
This is fantastic, Volvo is in the self driving game and Uber is investing heavily in this also. Imagine a future of subscription/usage based automated commuting services, where the car is just a toy and is not even allowed in cities. http://www.dezeen.com/2015/02/24/volvo-public-testing-self-driving-cars-2017-gothenburg/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/02/ub...ity-in-pittsburgh-to-build-self-driving-cars/
Lol, people hate change but once it normalizes it will be a great thing. No more drunk driving, traffic jams, fender benders, distracted motorists, car maintenance, uninsured motorists, etc. So I work in the technology industry and yesterday I had a meeting with some smart dudes and we got on this subject. They painted a picture of a city or private based transportation service. Where unused cars go into "hover" mode, waiting on requests and are at your place within minutes of a request. Complicated algorithms controlling the navigation, disbursement of vehicles, consolidating trips, etc. I find it all very exciting, mostly because I cant drive anymore, but besides that I think regular car ownership will soon be a thing of the past, and Uber might rule the new world.
