How Google, Tesla, and Uber Could Team Up For the Driverless Taxis of the Future 126
cartechboy writes "Follow the thinking for a second. Google drops $258 million into the car-taxi app Uber. Google says it will make self-driving cars available within four years, based on its ground-breaking research into self-driving cars. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spoken with Google about driverless technology for future Tesla vehicles. So, are we watching the assembly of a massive driverless taxi service of the future? Battery-electric vehicles make excellent autonomous taxis (very few moving parts, low per-mile energy cost, and zero noise or emissions) Could Google use some of its cash hoard to buy Tesla outright (making Elon Musk its third largest shareholder in the process), then grab Uber and turn the whole thing into an app? Musk's goal has always been to transform the very nature of transportation. This might just do that."
cash hoard (Score:3, Insightful)
Why would Musk become the third-largest GOOG shareholder if it was purchased if TSLA was purchased with cash? That doesn't make any sense.
Will the courts / laws be ready in 4 years? (Score:3, Insightful)
Will the courts / laws be ready in 4 years?
also one big / bad accident can lead to a big count case / even an order to stop useing the cars till the case can go though so things can get worked out without adding more victims to the penning cases.
Re:Common arguments... (Score:4, Insightful)
Having several cameras recording the interior of the car should solve almost all of those problems. Most Cabs in many places have cameras already for the same reasons. A "phone home" operation for human assistance in unusual situations should solve the rest.
Re:Common arguments... (Score:4, Insightful)
There really isn't such a thing as common sense. A traffic jam is just another common situation to be programmed for, and quite an easy one at that. If we have enough driverless vehicles, I think the number of traffic jams will be drastically reduce, as AI based cars are unlikely to tailgate an tap their brakes constantly like many (brain-damaged) humans.