Google Self-Driving Car (Photo : Twitter)
Google will reportedly create a new self-driving car company that will fall under the Alphabet conglomerate and expand its autonomous vehicle unit. The search giant might have plans to use driverless cars as rides for hire in 2016. That would cause it to go toe-to-toe with Uber, which it ironically owns stocks shares of through its capital investment business Google Venture.
Bloomberg first reported the big news on the morning of December 16, Wednesday. Google has not made any official response about the report, so it is uncertain how the robot taxi service would work.
However, the business model for a self-driving car company would take on Uber's chauffer service. It would likely require a mobile app or wearable device to hire a driverless vehicle.
Deductive reasoning also shows that a rides-for-hire business would be the likely function of a new robotic car company. Google has stated several times it has no plans to build cars for sale, and an ads business would not make enough money through services such as YouTube's video streaming for autos, according to Re/code.
Another possible option would be to license out Android self-driving software to automakers. However, Re/code points out that many car builders are developing their own driverless car programs.
Uber is also already working on mapping technology and self-driving software. However, most industry experts argue that Google is easily winning the race to develop the first fully-functional autonomous vehicle.
Bryant Walker Smith is a driverless car expert at the University of South Carolina. He explained that within time Google's self-driving vehicles will not only compete with Uber and taxi companies, but also companies such as Amazon and FedEx.
In an unofficial response to Bloomberg's report about Google's plans for a robot car company, the latter tweeted that Uber and Lyft work "quite well." The Twitter post shared that Google often uses the companies' services.
In other self-driving automobile news, California's Department of Motor Vehicles just proposed a new law that would require all driverless cars to be equipped with a steering wheel. A licensed driver would also be required to sit behind the wheel, according to Mashable.
Here's how Google's cars work on city streets:
