Business Data Communication

Q: How does Google justify the role out of driverless car as a part of its business?

Ans: Sebastian Thrun, head of Google X believes that self-driving cars could revolutionize the way people
used and thought about cars. According to Thrun, Google aimed to reduce accidents and fatalities, shorten
commute times, improve the quality of life for the blind and make transportation available to individuals
who could not drive themselves such as the elderly or disabled. If cars drove themselves, people could
browse the Internet and use google services and other websites. In turn, Google's ad revenue would increase.
Thus, it will also complement Google’s existing business.
Google is also well positioned to develop the technology required for automated vehicle. Its extensive
experience in software development, vast collection of data from its Google Maps and Street View products
and an ability to attract top talent, access to capital will help in designing the technology for automated
vehicles.
Driverless cars could also become a part of Google’s robo-taxi systems and it can benefit this system by
picking-up passengers on demand i.e., it can also become a shared resource that people would use when
needed.
Location based services are enormous strengths of Google. This project can get benefitted from the
collection of data previously recorded by Google Maps and Street View. Google also keeps collecting data
and uses the data further to refine the technology.
Google is also one of the most trusted and reliable company, car manufacturers can trust google. Google can
partner with car manufactures and can integrate its technology in their cars. Therefore, the Google is likely
to benefit whether it creates the hardware for self-driving cars and license the necessary software to
automakers.
Although there are benefits of self-driving cars, but Google also faced several barriers in developing the
driverless cars such as problems related to market adoption (whether consumers would be wiling to buy self-
driving cars. There was also huge amount of cost involved. Google’s cars required $1,50,000 worth of
equipment and consumers are wiling to spend as much as $3000 for autonomous driving applications.
It also faced several legal barriers. Google had lobbied several state governments to allow testing and use of
self-driving cars on roadways. There were also unanswered liability questions regarding who would be
responsible in an accident.
Self-driving automobiles faced competition from other market competitors as well. Universities and
automakers were conducting their own research on and testing of autonomous cars. The U.S. Department of
Transportation funds the Transportation Research Center at Carnegie Mellon University, which is affiliated
with General Motors. Only automotive-grade radars and lidars, as well as computers concealed beneath the
floor, were utilised in the vehicle.
The Dutch and Israeli tech startup Mobileye, which created ADAS and had a $1.5 billion valuation, received
$400 million to work with General Motors, BMW, and Volvo to develop semiautonomous driving
technology. Mobileye planned to create self-driving technology that might be much less expensive than
Google's technology for stop-and-go traffic situations or for managing lengthy periods of highway travel.
Given the competition from other software companies and automobile companies, driverless cars are in fact
going to be the dominant technology of the future. So, it a good business opportunity to invest in this
technology to enter the consumer market as soon as possible.

Submitted By: Eshaan Kulshreshtha PGP ID:PGP37234 Section:B Subject:BDC