Meh. Less than Hillary's presidential campaign.
Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
31–40 of 86 posts
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#32Serious question: Why not acquire Tesla and position yourself leaps and bounds ahead of the other tech giants?
I rather seriously doubt Elon is selling Tesla.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#33Google already has a huge amount of power over where people go on the Internet. It seems having power, however indirect, of where people go in the real world is their next goal, and it is quite deeply unsettling to consider. Imagine self-driving cars that will be cheaper but take you to "sponsored places" before going to your destination, refuse certain destinations "for your safety", and play ads continuously while you're helplessly transported around.
Given that amount of power they will have if they succeed, spending $1B on the (very real) possibility of getting to that situation is definitely expected. And very very scary for everyone else.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#34$94 billion in cash burning a hole in their pocket. $20x billion in new cash pouring in annually, expanding by 10%-20% per year. In another two years they'll be net cash richer than Apple is (as unlike Apple they pay no dividend and have almost entirely avoided taking on debt). There aren't very many large companies they can buy with that money, due to perpetually increasing anti-trust concerns. I suppose they could…
That's amazing. Would it be fair to say that at this point it's a dollar optimizer with no reasoning beyond it?
I can't remember if it was Lazlo Bock or Eric Schmidt, but in one of their books (both?) someone reports a board member opining "You've created the first self-replicating talent machine." Having worked with those cats, that might actually be true.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#35Serious question: Why not acquire Tesla and position yourself leaps and bounds ahead of the other tech giants?
Maybe because Google's self driving tech is fundamentally different than that Of Tesla's. Tesla relies on sensors and vision based system whereas Google relies on LIDAR. So I don't think they'd able to integrate the Tesla's self-driving tech into Waymo in any ways.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#36I think by most accounts - 1) Google / Waymo is by far the furthest ahead in self-driving tech. 2) Self-driving is possible in at least certain circumstances in the next decade or two (already is to an extent today). 3) Transportation / automobiles is an absolutely massive industry. Even companies like Dana, Inc (maker of axles) have $4bil valuations. It's easy to see how a self-driving tech maker would be worth far…
Apparently Tesla is the furthest ahead in terms of having a sellable product. Google however, no matter how fancy their technology maybe, they don't have a window to demonstrate yet and need to rely on existing auto manufacturers, which is developing their own arms of self-driving rapidly and they have vast advantage as to collect data.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#37I think by most accounts - 1) Google / Waymo is by far the furthest ahead in self-driving tech. 2) Self-driving is possible in at least certain circumstances in the next decade or two (already is to an extent today). 3) Transportation / automobiles is an absolutely massive industry. Even companies like Dana, Inc (maker of axles) have $4bil valuations. It's easy to see how a self-driving tech maker would be worth far…
Apparently Tesla is the furthest ahead in terms of having a sellable product. Google however, no matter how fancy their technology maybe, they don't have a window to demonstrate yet and need to rely on existing auto manufacturers, which is developing their own arms of self-driving rapidly and they have vast advantage as to collect data.
Then look at Apple, buying up all the tech they need.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#38They've likely spent way more than that, since the article's number is only through the end of 2015:
"Between Project Chauffeur’s inception in 2009 and the end of 2015, Google spent $1.1 billion on developing its self-driving software and hardware"
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#39Can anyone put this figure in context? I'm inclined to imagine that $1.1B is chicken feed for Google.
https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGOOGL&fstype=i...
Google made 3.5 billion in their most recently reported quarter. It would have been even higher, except for a nearly 3 billion dollar 'unusual expense'. It's not exactly chicken feed, but 1.1B isn't an unexpected number given their focus on 'other bets'.
Re: Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech
#40It's a lot and yet it somehow seems cheap at the price. DAROA seems to invest on a similar scale.