Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 232 posts

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#111

Post by jfoster »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #39
throwaway40483 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Regardless, Google kick-started a lot of other car makers to start developing self-driving cars or made it OK for other car makers to be more public about their efforts. Exactly! This part of Google's legacy is severely under appreciated. People were rolling their eyes when Google originally presented their plan. Amazing how quickly it went from science fiction to reality.

I'd say it was the Darpa Grand Challenge that kickstarted it, not Google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge I have the feeling Google never had a real plan behind this research project. Tesla's plan is clear. Uber's plan is clear. What is / was Google's plan?

Why can't it be the similar to the Uber or Tesla plan? Just because Alphabet make the bulk of their revenue from sticking ads in front of eyeballs doesn't mean that's how they have to continue making money.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#112

Post by majewsky »

Ensorceled wrote: post #83
AlexC04 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though, with a self driving car sharing would not necessarily mean you both need to use it at the same time. The car could pick you up, drive your 20 minutes, then drive to the other person on its own and drive their 20 minutes. "Serial sharing" not "parallel"

> someone would have to build cars that are both shareable, but offer privacy for each of the passengers The type of sharing you are writing about is not what the comment I was replying to was writing about. I agree FWIW and I think you'll see CaaS co-operatives start up.

> I think you'll see CaaS co-operatives start up

That's assuming that autonomous cars as a product (rather than a service) enter the free market at all.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#114

Post by blizkreeg »

I've been thinking of spending some time on an idea for a personal transport vehicle. I can imagine the safety and testing regulations being onerous and everything else that goes with making and selling any form of automobiles not for the faint of heart.

Seeing as how giant cos like Apple and Google are exiting the "making" space of vehicles, is it crazy to even toy with an idea of building a vehicle that moves people?

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#115

Post by ocdtrekkie »

blizkreeg wrote: post #114

I've been thinking of spending some time on an idea for a personal transport vehicle. I can imagine the safety and testing regulations being onerous and everything else that goes with making and selling any form of automobiles not for the faint of heart. Seeing as how giant cos like Apple and Google are exiting the "making" space of vehicles, is it crazy to even toy with an idea of building a vehicle that moves peopl…

Presumably you'd want to take your idea to a company that values it, and has experience in the safety and testing part. Tesla is not that big, and other smaller car makers have entered the field.

It's ludicrous to assume Google doesn't have the power to enter the car market if it wants to, it's influence over government is legendary. It could buy off the regulatory issues, at this point.

If Google isn't entering the car market, it's because Google doesn't want to enter the car market. Likely because it's not a high margin industry.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#116

Post by athenot »

blizkreeg wrote: post #114

I've been thinking of spending some time on an idea for a personal transport vehicle. I can imagine the safety and testing regulations being onerous and everything else that goes with making and selling any form of automobiles not for the faint of heart. Seeing as how giant cos like Apple and Google are exiting the "making" space of vehicles, is it crazy to even toy with an idea of building a vehicle that moves peopl…

Even Elon Musk admitted it was crazy to take on cars. I suppose it's one of those industries that looks simple from the outside because we're so familiar with the user side, but the manufacturing of which is surprisingly complex.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#117

Post by [deleted] »

CM30 wrote: post #102

I don't think this is all that surprising to be honest. Google is (by and large) a software development and services company, not a car manufacturer. If they make their own autonomous vehicles, that means they then have to handle everything from safety testing to customer support and sales in addition to the self driving car technology itself. By working with existing car manufacturers, they can focus on their part o…

[deleted]

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#118

Post by kpil »

azernik wrote: post #62
ceejay wrote: post #58

My guess is existing auto (and other) manufacturers have all but locked up world's supply chain of raw materials necessary to make it feasible to manufacture automobiles at large enough scale. If I were Google (if they seriously want to consider getting into manufacturing their own products) I would look into starting a chain of junk yards and refineries.

It's just a very capital-intensive business with long turnaround times on new hardware designs. It would take not only a lot of investment, but also a large delay on Google's part to get their own car out the door.

It's also requires a lot of know-how, that takes long time to build up.

Building electrical cars removes some of the difference because the traditional drive train is a large chunk of engineering. (Hint, China can't design good engines yet, so they are buying companies with people that do.)

If I remember correctly ABB patched together a electric drive train technology demo car 20+ years ago including a drive by wire system with electric steering and brakes. They probably mostly did it to show off their high voltage pmm controllers.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#119

Post by ajmurmann »

kriro wrote: post #44
emdowling wrote: post #19

It's fascinating to see Google and (purportedly) Apple move in a similar direction away from developing their own actual cars and instead building the software platform. It makes a lot of sense for Google, who have always struggled with selling products direct to consumers. It is more surprising for Apple, but makes sense if you look at how they can add the most value. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out…

I wonder if a fully automated car might actually be a different product category than a "regular" car. I could actually see a decent market for (relatively ugly) self driving cars that are mostly seen as a means to get from A to B. In fact I'm not sure if the ownership model is right for this category. I could see renting/leasing these vehicles on a monthly base as a service and the competition being buying a monthly…

I can see that during a relatively short transition period but hope it won't remain that way. Once all cars are autonomous we can do incredible things. For example traffic lights to regulate traffic between cars will be obsolete. Cars can just adjust their speed way before the intersection so that they just miss each other at the intersection. Likewise we can avoid congestion by cars registering for their route in advance. We could raise the speed limits on freeways and other roads that only have cars on them or even remove them entirely since the cars will know better what their limits are than some blanket regulation. It also will be much safer, since self driving cars are likely to quickly become safer drivers, but we will also remove erratic behavior that humans display. For example there won't be no more people who cannot zip properly (currently the majority of US Americans), no more cars not speeding up properly on the freeway on-ramp and then slowing everyone down on the freeway, no more weird stopping and slow driving by drivers who are lost. This will make the overall traffic situation much more predictable and safer.

Re: Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car

#120

Post by tyingq »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #3

Is that surprising? I never assumed that Google was planning to build actual cars with this tech. I suppose I never really thought that deeply about how it would roll out, but if I had, I would have guessed partnerships with others in the industry. If they can nail "self-driving tech" as well as they've nailed search, they'll potentially earn licensing fees from all vehicles, rather than from the slice of vehicles th…

>I never assumed that Google was planning to build actual cars with this tech

They did seem to hint that they were going to. They did invest in their own, in-house built prototypes. If you start here: https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/faq/#q4 , you'll see the types of partners they were talking about working with. These aren't automakers.

Post reply on HN