If and when Google Inc. decides to mass produce a self-driving car, the company will need a partner in the automotive industry to build them. It's either that, or try to enter an industry that requires billions in overhead and liability protection – as well as experience.
But according to a recent report by Reuters, the gap between Google's idea for the future of the industry and automakers' long experience is vast. Google's prototypes represent big, big changes in the industry and the way people use cars, a mindset that is at odds with the conventional industry's expectations.
Google's funky-looking vehicles don't have steering wheels, accelerators or brake pedals. Their top speed is 25 miles per hour. Perhaps even more frightening for automakers, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has said that he envisions the cars being used as an on-demand service rather than Henry Ford's age-old everyone-gets-a-car ownership model.
Moreover, carmakers have been developing their own autonomous car technology. They favor a more reserved approach to integrating the technology, going for incremental features like self-parking. The biggest leap of faith for carmakers in jumping to such a radically different driving paradigm involves liability, Reuters said.
If a self-driving car crashes, it's not clear who's liable. And while Google has reportedly said it would take responsibility for such accidents, companies like General Motors (whose stock is bafflingly up today after announcing it recalled another 8.4 million cars) are hesitant to take on any extra risk.
In any case, it appears that the carmakers need Google as much as it needs them.
"Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and nobody wants to miss the boat," Edwin Olson, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, who works with Ford on an automated vehicle project, told Reuters. "But at the same time I don’t think automakers want Google to be dictating terms if the time comes and Google is the only game in town."
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