
Alphabet Creating Stand-Alone Self-Driving Car Business - jbredeche
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabet-creating-stand-alone-self-driving-car-business-1477524494
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jhulla
Out of curiosity, has anyone seen Google's self-driving cars testing down El
Camino, University or Castro in PA and MV?

Each street presents uniquely complicated obstacles. In the case of El Camino,
the police recently shut down the lights at an intersection due to Stanford
game traffic. I'm curious if the self-driving cars know how to recognize hand
signals from a legit police officer.

Over on University and Castro, there is a lot of foot traffic and sometimes
people briefly double parking to drop off/pick up people. Some human drivers
in these cases will (illegally?) cross the double yellow lines into the
oncoming lane to pass the double-parked vehicles. Again, I wonder how the
self-driving cars handle these scenarios.

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qq66
A self-driving car does not need to be able to handle every situation to still
be useful. For example, if I had a self driving car that occasionally stopped
and said "Please get in the drivers' seat, human driver required," it would
still be a huge improvement over a normal car. And in the taxi fleet scenario,
the cars could use alternate routes, or refuse a pickup in a place it can't
get to and drop off as close as it can get.

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kasparsklavins
By the time you are in the drivers seat, it will already be too late. A
vehicle can't just stop and do nothing. A bad decision may be better than no
decision at all.

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tiglionabbit
It can in the scenarios listed above. If it sees the traffic lights blinking
because a human is doing traffic control there, the car could safely stop and
require a human to take over. If you're waiting behind someone who has stopped
in the middle of the road to load or unload passengers, it's safe to just
wait, or allow a human driver to figure out going around them.

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paulsutter
The sooner they get the product in use by consumers the better. They've taken
an overcautious approach and been too focused on partnering.

I really hope they'll deploy their own cars so that they have control over the
platform and can iterate fast. There was a rumor that Apple was trying to buy
McLaren. A similar deal might allow Google to move faster and get the product
out there.

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tiglionabbit
I think caution is warranted in dangerous situations like this. Accidents
could be a major setback.

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paulsutter
Human drivers caused 1.25 million fatalities in 2013[1]. When do we start
blaming those deaths on our collective failure to deploy self driving cars?

[1]
[http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/en/](http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/en/)

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adrianN
Machines are always held to much higher standards than humans. It would be
rational to switch to robocars as soon as they drive at least as safely as
humans. In reality, even a small number of accidents caused by the AI will
destroy all trust in the technology. Most people don't think in expected death
rates.

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DougN7
Given that they are apparently getting out of the ISP business because of the
startup costs involved, I'm wondering how they'll do getting into the car
business, which must have even higher startup costs.

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aub3bhat
My theory is that they are getting out off Fiber / ISP business not because of
costs, but rather the goal of Google Fiber has been met. Back in 2012 there
was a real risk posed by ISPs, however with effective lobbying ensured Net-
Neutrality becoming adopted as an official policy, and with next president
likely being from the same party. There is no longer need for Google Fiber as
it was in 2012. Also maybe there is another technology thats more lucrative
which is on horizon and thus Google is recusing itself from making likely to
fall investments in optical fiber network.

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justinlardinois
I don't agree with this at all. Google's projects don't always make money, but
I don't think it ever does something without an _intention_ to make money. The
idea that Google Fiber existed solely to further a political cause seems far-
fetched to me.

Also, net neutrality being in the Democratic Party platform is a far cry from
it actually being law. The election isn't over yet and so we don't know who
the next president will be and which parties will control which houses of
Congress.

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jordan_litko
It was to further a political cause that allows them to continue to make
money. In the end, it was still about the money.

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6stringmerc
I'm still cheering for George Hotz in this one. Competition is good. I
especially like scrappy types.

[http://www.pcmag.com/news/347864/hacker-george-hotz-
unveils-...](http://www.pcmag.com/news/347864/hacker-george-hotz-
unveils-999-self-driving-software)

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4ndr3vv
_" The world is going to have cars that are sold to individuals and cars that
are shared by individuals, and which one Alphabet does, we have our thinking
on it"_

As Tesla is going after the former ("affordable for everyone") it would make a
lot of sense for Google to go after the shared market. It also feels more
Google-y to me.

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Animats
Makes sense. Google's technology is about ready for initial commercialization.

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cma
I had assumed it needed close collaboration with the maps/earth team and was
mutually beneficial. If they spin it off I guess they could have some deal in
place to preserve that aspect?

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dcgudeman
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.—Google parent Alphabet Inc. is graduating its self-
driving-car project from its research lab X into a stand-alone business, said
X chief Astro Teller, a major step in the vehicles’ path to commercial
operations.

The car group’s finances were separated from X on Jan. 1 this year, and now
the team is completing a series of corporate and legal moves to become its own
business, Mr. Teller said in an interview at the WSJDLive 2016 tech
conference.

As its own stand-alone business under Alphabet, the car group would likely be
expected to soon begin generating revenue, though not necessarily a profit at
first. Mr. Teller declined to disclose the car project’s planned business
model.

“The world is going to have cars that are sold to individuals and cars that
are shared by individuals, and which one Alphabet does, we have our thinking
on it,” he said. “But right now we’re very focused on safety.”

Mr. Teller said Alphabet will likely roll out its self-driving cars
incrementally over the next several years as they improve with more time on
the road. For example, the group could choose to launch the cars commercially
in just a handful of cities with favorable roads and weather, before expanding
to more challenging roadways and climates, he said.

He compared the process to teaching a teenager to drive, from parents first
keeping their hands close to the wheel to letting the teenager drive alone
only during daylight to eventually eliminating restrictions altogether.

“Any other company that’s acting rationally will probably do the same thing,
which is finding constrained ways to roll out so that we’re learning safely,”
he said.

Other companies building self-driving cars are deploying their technology
gradually, though in many of those cases the auto firms are releasing
semiautonomous technology that still requires drivers to be ready to take
control.

Mr. Teller said Alphabet’s cars will be fully autonomous from the start. “You
press a button and tell the car where you want to go,” he said.

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