In an effort to get on the ride-sharing bandwagon and rival the likes of Uber and Lyft, Google is apparently working on the expansion of its autonomous vehicle fleet to eventually offer ride-sharing services.
Due to extensive testing throughout San Francisco and Austin, Texas, the autonomous vehicles of Google have clocked up over 1 million miles of solo driving on public roads.
A source, reportedly briefed on Google’s autonomous vehicle strategy, revealed to Bloomberg that these areas could serve as the starting point for a roll-out of self-driving Google cars offering ride-sharing.
It is suggested by Bloomberg that the autonomous vehicle fleets could be expanded to include both small and large vehicles and initially be available on corporate office parks, military bases and college campuses.
Discussing this potential new business venture from Google, Thilo Koslowsk, vice president and automotive practice leader at Gartner Inc, commented: “These potential ride-for-hire services could allow consumers to experience the technology and embrace it in a bigger way. That would help not just Google, but the entire industry.”
It is also being reported that the internet giant is planning on making the unit of self-driving cars its very own business under the Alphabet conglomerate, which it set up back in August. A number of Google’s technology units have already been spun off into standalone companies within Alphabet.
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