The Google executive in charge of the tech giant’s self-driving car project came to the Motor City, offering assurances that his company doesn’t plan to jump into the automaking business.
Even more reassuring for Detroit, Chris Urmson, director of self-driving cars for Google, says his company will “eventually” need a partner to build cars using its technology.
How soon that happens, however, isn’t entirely clear.
In a presentation to an auto industry conference here, Urmson didn’t specify a target date for how soon the technology can be commercialized. But he told the Detroit Free Press that the goal is to have self-driving cars on the market within five years and that Google is building prototypes in Livonia, Mich.
That news normally would be enough to send shivers through the traditional automaking business, where paranoia about being leapfrogged by start-ups or tech companies still runs deep.
In offering assurances to General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler — Detroit’s Big 3 — Urmson told several-hundred auto executives that he’s open to a partnership with a traditional automaker and that Google doesn’t intend to go into the car-making business.
“We’re definitely not in the business of making cars,” he said flatly, even though Google recently fielded working versions of bubble-shaped self-driving cars for testing. While soothing fears that Google might become an automaking competitor, he also offered an opportunity: “At some point,” he said, Google will be “looking for a partner to build entire vehicles.”
Just when, he didn’t say.
As if that wasn’t enough, he also indicated that Google isn’t necessarily into self-driving cars for the money. The project is just a sidelight to Google’s core search-engine business. “The real goal is to do things that matter in the world,” he says.
Google’s hopes of seeing a self-driving car on sale within five years is roughly in line with the goal set by Nissan. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghoan says he wants to be selling one within five years.
Not all automakers are enthusiastic. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne cast doubt Tuesday night on whether consumers will embrace them. They’d rather drive themselves, he says.
