It seems something people forget about Google Projects is that they don't always aim to penetrate the markets they play in. For example, Google Voice and the purchase of Grandcentral was, among other things, a reason to collect voice samples to improve it's voice recognition routines.
Looking at a car run by a computer with computer "eyes" seems to me like a great way to test and hone a whole host of technologies involved with real time visual recognition systems, radar miniaturization, behavior prediction, etc... and cars are big enough to carry their own full fledged computers to power the machine learning neural networks necessary to process the information gleaned at 30-45 mph on actual streets with real people.
Anyone thinking that Google was actually going to put out a car (knowing their history) is an idiot. I'd totally believe that about Apple. They seem like a company that would happily go down that rabbit hole so long as it looked cool like a Tesla and they could charge ungodly amounts of money for a middling product. If Google developed that tech for use in cars AT ALL... well, it wouldn't be too surprising, but I doubt it'd be for general consumer use, at least not for many years. But I'll tell you what, anyone looking for these solutions for their own vehicular projects would see Google and Apple and know which one is most likely designed to work with a wide range of products in a wide range of scenarios. And that ain't Apple.
Looking at a car run by a computer with computer "eyes" seems to me like a great way to test and hone a whole host of technologies involved with real time visual recognition systems, radar miniaturization, behavior prediction, etc... and cars are big enough to carry their own full fledged computers to power the machine learning neural networks necessary to process the information gleaned at 30-45 mph on actual streets with real people.
Anyone thinking that Google was actually going to put out a car (knowing their history) is an idiot. I'd totally believe that about Apple. They seem like a company that would happily go down that rabbit hole so long as it looked cool like a Tesla and they could charge ungodly amounts of money for a middling product. If Google developed that tech for use in cars AT ALL... well, it wouldn't be too surprising, but I doubt it'd be for general consumer use, at least not for many years. But I'll tell you what, anyone looking for these solutions for their own vehicular projects would see Google and Apple and know which one is most likely designed to work with a wide range of products in a wide range of scenarios. And that ain't Apple.