Premise: "Car companies have been toying with driverless cars for years, so the idea that Google will produce driverless cars end-to-end is without merit"
What I can't understand is who thinks Google is going to be building these cars. Has anyone claimed that, even the referenced Forbes article? I don't think so. As others suspect, Google wants to offer the brains to these car companies, and tie them into the world of other Google services (Android phones, browser integration, ad injection, media streaming, etc).
Look at it another way: Microsoft supplies much of the tech to Ford, Hyundai, and others for their in-car "infotainment" systems, that doesn't mean when they started the CAR.NET initiative in the '90s they were trying to take on Ford and GM.
A second, follow-up point: If car makers have worked so long on driverless technology and made so little progress, what is Google doing better? I've seen the driverless cars in action, they work very well (though I elected not to leap in front of one).
Premise: "Car companies have been toying with driverless cars for years, so the idea that Google will produce driverless cars end-to-end is without merit"
What I can't understand is who thinks Google is going to be building these cars. Has anyone claimed that, even the referenced Forbes article? I don't think so. As others suspect, Google wants to offer the brains to these car companies, and tie them into the world of other Google services (Android phones, browser integration, ad injection, media streaming, etc).
Look at it another way: Microsoft supplies much of the tech to Ford, Hyundai, and others for their in-car "infotainment" systems, that doesn't mean when they started the CAR.NET initiative in the '90s they were trying to take on Ford and GM.